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MARTYRDOM OF JOHN HUSS.—SEE 
























CHARACTERS, 

SCENES, AND INCIDENTS, 

OF THE 


REFORMATION; 


FROM THE RISE OF THE CULDEES TO THE 
TIMES OF LUTHER. 





REVISED BY D. P. KIDDER. 

* 



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PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

1853. 




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CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 


Urgent necessity of a reformation—Substitution of corrupt doc¬ 
trines for those of the Word of God—Pilgrimages—Relics— 
^ - Extreme degeneracy of the priests and people—Depravity of 
v - X^the highest orders of the hierarchy—Instances of piety. Page 7 

CHAPTER II. 


5 ; 


Romantic and picturesque valleys—Christians early separated 
from Rome—The Vaudois—Peter Waldo—Works of the Vau- 
dois in verse and prose—Persecution of the people—Fearful 
ravages of their foes. 17 



CHAPTER III. 


The Provencals—Rise of the Albigenses—Count Raymond of 
Toulouse—His nephew, Raymond of Beziers—Crusade against 
the Albigenses—The taking of Carcassone—St. Dominic— 
v Origin of the Inquisition. t ... 31 


CHAPTER IV. 


The Culdees—Columba—Iona—Labors and trials of Wiclif— 
His translation of the Bible—John of Gaunt—Queen Anne of 
Bohemia—The Lollards—Lord Cobham—Followers of Wic¬ 
lif in Scotland . 49 

X 

CHAPTER Y. 

Bohemia—Wiclifs works introduced—John Huss—Diffusion 
of his doctrines—Council of Constance—Huss a martyr— 
Jerome of Prague persecuted and put to death—Crimes, trial, 
and sentence of John XXIII.. 77 


\ 







6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VI. 

The Netherlands—Origin of Brotherhoods—The Beguines—Ger¬ 
hard Groot—Gregory of Heimburg—Ruckrath of Wessalia— 
John Wessel—The Reformation in Poland . Page 97 

CHAPTER VII. 

Luther discovers a Bible—Ilis visit to Rome—State of the priests 
and people of that city—The duke George of Saxony, and his 
sons—Luther’s journey to Heidelberg—Tetzel’s sale of in¬ 
dulgences—Luther opposes him—The diet of Worms—Luther 
proceeds thither—His fidelity to the truth—His arrest and im¬ 
prisonment at Wartburg. 119 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Erasmus—Melancthon, his learning and works—Luther’s return 
to Wittemberg—His translation of the New Testament— 
His various writings—Wide diffusion of the works of the re¬ 
formers—Progress of the Reformation. 155 





CHARACTERS, SCENES, & INCIDENTS 

OF THE 

REFORMATION. 


CHAPTER I. 

Urgent necessity of a reformation—Substitution of corrupt doc¬ 
trines for those of the Word of God—Pilgrimages—Relics— 
Extreme degeneracy of the priests and people—Depravity of 
the highest orders of the hierarchy—Instances of piety. 

Nearly two thousand years ago, an extraordi¬ 
nary character appeared in the wilderness of 
Judsea. As his people had made void the law 
of God by the traditions of the fathers, and had 
become exceedingly corrupt, he received a Di¬ 
vine commission to “ prepare the way of the 
Lord.” Attired in raiment of camel’s hair, with 
a leather girdle about his loins, and feeding on 
locusts and wild honey, John the Baptist went 
forth, “ in the spirit and power of Elias,” pro¬ 
claiming repentance as the only way of restora¬ 
tion to the favor of God, and the consequent 
enjoyment of purity and peace. 

A similar work was imperatively needed by 




8 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

the nations of Christendom, during many cen¬ 
turies ; for enormous evils were in active and 
virulent operation, and the word of God was 
displaced from its supreme authority by the 
devices of men. 

It was, for example, the great doctrine of 
Christianity, that Jesus was “the Lamb of 
Godthat by his “ one offering he hath per¬ 
fected forever them that are sanctifiedand that 
having once died, “ he ever liveth.” But now 
it was maintained that whenever a priest took a 
wafer—a small piece of unleavened bread,—and 
consecrated it by saying, “ Hoc est corpus meum ,” 
“This is my body,” it became changed into 
“the very body and blood, soul and divinity,” 
of our Lord and Saviour, and that he was thus 
continually offered as a sacrifice to the Father. 
Such was the Romish doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation—such was the declared ceremonial of 
the mass. 

The doctrine of Christ’s intercession was as 
willfully set aside as that of his perfect and once- 
offered atonement. Instead of the people be¬ 
ing told that “ there is one Mediator between 
God and men,” and only one, as the apostles 
affirmed, St. Anthony, St. Francis, and a mul¬ 
titude more, were individually exhibited as a 
medium through whom the Divine favor was 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 9 

bestowed. These persons were described, too, 
as givers of good ; so that it was said blessings 
were to be entreated from them, as well as ex¬ 
pected through their means. Thus, to the 
gross error of describing them as channels of 
good, was added the one still more revolting, 
of representing them as sources of good. The 
highest place among the so-called saints was 
assigned to the Virgin Mary, not only as a media¬ 
trix, but as the sovereign bestower of the rich¬ 
est blessings. Thus men were drawn away 
from “ the fountain of living waters,” and 
directed to “ broken cisterns, which can hold no 
water.” 

The grievous and ruinous errors that pre¬ 
vailed, were constantly made to subserve the 
interests of monks and priests; for it was de¬ 
clared that they interceded only for those who 
deserved well of certain orders of laymen and 
ecclesiastics, founded by the Virgin or the saints. 
The monk or the priest, therefore, prescribed 
alike the service that was to be performed, the 
money that w r as to be offered, or the terms 
on which the one might suffice for the other; for 
though prayers were to be said, and hymns to 
be chanted, and journeys to be made, yet mo¬ 
ney could secure an exemption from them all. 
He who had no money was left to himself; ho 


10 INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 

who had money might do as he pleased, assured 
that he was right and safe. Money’s worth had 
the same power ; and the produce of the field or 
the dairy was no less acceptable to the monk or 
priest than the current coin. 

To feed the superstition thus engendered and 
sustained, pilgrimages were prescribed ; and not 
only were they engaged in by the common 
people, but by bishops, princes, and kings. 
Numberless were the places accounted holy. 
The shrine of St. James, at Compostella, in 
Spain, was an object of special attraction. 
Tours and Rome were also places of resort; 
while multitudes thought, in their infatuation, 
that 

“ Each holy vow 

Less quickly from the unstable soul would fade, 

Offer’d where Christ in agony was laid,” 

and flocked from all quarters to pay their devo¬ 
tions at Jerusalem. 

The devotee might, however, find relics at 
home as well as abroad. At Wittemberg he 
was directed, amidst many thousands, to a 
piece of wood “ from the cradle of our Lord 
at Schaffhausen, to “ the breath of St. Joseph, 
. received by Nicodemus in his glove;” and 
everywhere, to “ a fragment of the true cross!” 
Relics were even hawked about the country by 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 11 

persons who hired them of their owners, and 
obtained all the profit they conld from their 
exhibition. The great outcry was, “ Money ! 
money !” and the general belief was, that there 
was nothing desirable which it could not 
procure. 

The inevitable consequence of substituting 
tradition for the inspired word of God, and 
gross superstition for “ pure and undefiled reli¬ 
gion, ” was, as of old, the extreme degeneracy 
of the people. The priests, instead of being the 
last, were the first, to yield to the power of cor¬ 
ruption. Gerhard, a Romanist, affirms that the 
monks receded not only from the rule of 
Christ’s word, but also from those of their 
respective fraternities, as Roman Catholic au¬ 
thors testify.— Gerhardi, Loci Theo., sect. 266, 
Jense, 1617. Referring to the abbeys, Burnet 
says, “The monks in these houses, abounding 
in wealth, and living at ease and in idleness, did 
so degenerate, that, from the twelfth century 
downwards, their reputation abated much ; and 
the privileges of sanctuaries were a general 
grievance, and often complained of in parlia¬ 
ments, for they received all that fled to them, 
wdiich put a great stop to justice, and did en¬ 
courage the most criminal offenders. They be¬ 
came lewd and dissolute, and so impudent in 


12 INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 

it, that some of their farms were let for bring¬ 
ing in a yearly tribute to their lusts/’— Burnet’s 
Hist. Ref., vol. i, p. 248. And Archbishop 
Seeker, alluding to “ the five or six ages ” pre¬ 
ceding the Reformation, says that, “ by the con¬ 
fession of their own historians, both clergy and 
laity were so universally and so monstrously 
ignorant and vicious, that nothing was too bad 
for them to do, or too absurd for them to be¬ 
lieve .”—First Sermon on Popery. Sermons, 
vol. vi. 

ISTo check was presented to appalling and in¬ 
creasing corruption by the personal characters 
of the superior orders of the hierarchy. Many 
of them greatly preferred the tumults of the 
battle-field to the ceremonies of the altar. 
Baldwin, archbishop of Treves, was constantly 
warring with his neighbors and vassals, demo¬ 
lishing their castles, rearing fortresses to defend 
what he acquired, and largely extending his 
territory. Another prelate, who, while admin¬ 
istering justice, wore under his robes a coat of 
mail, and held a long sword in his hand, was 
accustomed to say, he was not afraid of five bar¬ 
barians, if they attacked him in fair fight. Every¬ 
where this martial spirit was displayed. The 
struggle between the bishops and the citizens 
was incessant, and numerous were the victims 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 13 

of episcopal vengeance. The cardinals were 
notorious for pride, luxury, and other crimes; 
and the pontiffs were also of infamous character. 

If it be said, these are the statements of those 
who wish “ to make the worse appear the better 
reason,” an appeal to Roman Catholics them¬ 
selves will justify all that has been affirmed. 
Many are the bold and faithful pens which 
delineate the moral traits of the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries. “ The Church,” said the 
Cardinal Alliaco, “ is come to such a state, that 
it is worthy of being governed only by repro¬ 
bates .”—Alliaco in Hard . 1, 424. Lenfant, ii, 
276. Petrarch pronounced the court of Avi¬ 
gnon, “ the sink and sewer of all vice, and the 
house of hardship and misery,” while he lament¬ 
ed, in general, “ the dereliction of all piety, 
charity, faith, shame, sanctity, integrity, justice, 
honesty, candor, humanity, and fear of God.”— 
jPetrarcka, in Bruy., iii, 470. According to 
Mariana, “ Every enormity had passed into a 
custom and law, and was committed without 
fear. Shame and modesty were banished; while, 
by a monstrous irregularity, the most dreadful 
outrages, perfidy, and treason, were better re¬ 
compensed than the brightest virtue. The 
wickedness of the pontiff descended to the peo¬ 
ple.”— Mariana , v, 718. 


14 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

Antoninus, addressing, in the sixteenth century, 
the fathers and senators assembled at Trent, 
lamented the general “ depravation of manners, 
the turpitude of vice, the contempt of the sacra¬ 
ments, the solicitude of earthly things, and the 
forgetfulness of celestial good, and of all Chris¬ 
tian piety.” He says, “ The pastor was without 
vigilance, the preacher without works, the law 
without subjection, the people without obedience, 
the monk without devotion, the rich without 
humility, the female without compassion, the 
young without discipline, and every Christian 
without religion.” All the crimes which man¬ 
kind can perpetrate, he describes as the terrific 
result .—Lubb , xx, 1219-1223. 

It is needless to augment the proofs thus given 
of prevailing and enormous evil. The spectacle 
of iniquity presented to the view is truly appal¬ 
ling. As we recall the visitation of the cities of 
the plain, and the still earlier destruction, by the 
flood, of the world of transgressors^ we cannot 
but adore the Divine forbearance that was dis¬ 
played, in sparing those who, professedly Chris¬ 
tian, were enemies of the Saviour’s cross, 
counting the blood of the covenant an unclean 
thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace. 
Truly God is gracious and merciful, slow to an¬ 
ger, and abundant in goodness and truth! 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 15 

There was, doubtless, in many minds a secret 
and personal conviction of error, even in the 
darkest ages. Within the pale of the Romish 
Church were manifestly some who reposed their 
whole trust in the only Mediator between God 
and men. A bishop of Basle, for example, had 
his name written on a picture painted on 
glass, and around it a motto, which he 
wished to be always before him, “ My hope is 
in the cross of Christ; I seek grace, and not 
works.” 

A Carthusian monk is said to have written the 
following acknowledgment: “ 0 most merciful 

O O 

God ! I know that I can only be saved, and sat¬ 
isfy thy righteousness, by the merit, the innocent 
suffering and death, of thy well-beloved Son. 
Holy Jesus, my salvation is in thy hands. Thou 
canst not withdraw thy hands from me, for they 
have created, reformed, and redeemed me. Thou 
hast inscribed my name with a pen of iron, in 
rich mercy, and so as nothing can efface it, on 
thy side, thy hands, and thy feet.” 

The confession thus made was placed in a 
wooden box, which was inclosed in a hole of this 
monk’s cell. So lately as the end of the year 
1776 it was discovered, in taking down an old 
building, which had been part of a Carthusian 
convent in Basle. To this incident we are in- 


16 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

debted for the delightful proof just given of 
evangelical piety. 

A monk, named Arnoldi, is said to have daily 
exclaimed in his cell, “ O Lord Jesus Christ! I 
believe that in thee alone I have redemption and 
righteousness and Anselm, of Canterbury, in 
a word prepared for the dying, exhorted them 
to “ look solely to the merits of Jesus Christ.” 
The sentiments expressed in each of these in¬ 
stances are clearly at variance with the doctrines 
of Romanists, and from their Scriptural charac¬ 
ter are exceedingly interesting. 

But, in order to a reformation, it was neces¬ 
sary that there should be not only a personal 
conviction of the guilt and danger of prevailing 
errors, but an actual and determined resistance 
to the established order of things. It was in- 
dispensable that the spirit of John the Baptist 
should return to the world. The necessity was 
urgent, not only for a simple reliance on the only 
sacrifice for sin, but for a public testimony to the 
truth, in the face of suffering, imprisonment, and 
death. And such a testimony was actually 
given; the Holy Spirit raised up men in various 
countries of Europe, who counted not their lives 
dear unto them, that they might “ testify the gos¬ 
pel of the grace of God.” We proceed, therefore, 
to take a glimpse of their character and course. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 17 


CHAPTER II. 

Romantic and picturesque valleys—Christians early separated 
fro.n Rome—The Vaudois—Peter Waldo—Works of the Vau- 
dois in verse and prose—Persecution of the people—Fearful 
ravages of their foes. 

The traveler in the lower portion of the division 
of the Cottian Alps, which lies between Monte 
Viso and Monte Genevre, having the plains of 
Piedmont on the east, and the province of Dau- 
phiny, in France, on the west, beholds stretch¬ 
ed out before him a striking and diversified 
scene. 

Situated on the west side of the Angrogna 
torrent, at a short distance from the angle which 
is formed by its junction with the Pelice, is La 
Tour, or, as the Italians call it, Torre. West¬ 
ward appear verdant slopes, covered with mul¬ 
berry and chestnut trees, vineyards and orchards, 
rising rapidly into the mountain regions of the 
lofty Yandalin, which separates the valley of 
Lucerne from Angrogna, and juts forth the pro¬ 
digious crag of Casteluzzo, the dark shadow of 
which is thrown on the valley below. In these 
slopes, and upon the terraces above them, stand 
the picturesque cottages of the peasants, each 
having its little portion of cultivated land around 

it. Beyond the stupendous crag just mentioned, 

2 


18 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


the valley is seen stretching back among the 
lofty mountains on either side, and the view is 
terminated in the background by the summits of 
the Alps bordering on Franee. On the south of 
the town is seen the Pelice, meandering its course 
through fields and meadows, which it now fertil¬ 
izes and now devastates; and beyond which 
Mount Envers, richly adorned with forests and 
flowers, forms an interesting bound to the pros¬ 
pect in that direction.— Dr. Henderson'’s Vaadois. 

La Tour may be regarded as the Protestant 
capital of these romantic and picturesque val¬ 
leys, which were the dwelling-places of wit¬ 
nesses for God during many ages of wide-spread 
and terrific degeneracy. 

The existence of a number (greater or less) of 
Christians, separated from Rome, in the north 
of Italy, is clearly ascertained by the epistles of 
Hatto, who, in the year 945, held the diocese 
of Vercelli, situated between Turin and Milan. 
The letters of this bishop have been preserved. 
In some of them, he speaks of persons who had 
left the Church, and describes them as being in 
the neighborhood of his own diocese. The doc¬ 
trinal and other points which he specifies as 
separating them from the Church of which he 
was a bishop, appear to be those which were 
held by the Vaudois. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 10 

In one of the most ancient productions of this 
people, the “ Noble Lesson,” their name is given, 
not in the Frenchified form in which it is now 
familiar, but as pronounced by the people them¬ 
selves. The passage is as follows 

“ If any man be found 
Who loves God, and fears Jesus Christ; 

Who will not slander, nor swear, nor lie, 

Nor commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, 

Nor avenge himself of his enemy ; 

They say, He is a Vaudes, and deserves to be punished.” 

Abstracting the local signification, the term 
is equivalent, as one of reproach, to Cathar, or 
Puritan, liberally applied to those in the north 
of Italy who served God in simplicity and sin¬ 
cerity, in contradistinction from the rest of their 
countrymen, whose religion was taught by the 
commandments of men. That the “ Noble Les¬ 
son” was written so far back as A. D. 1110 has 
been generally believed, and is still strenuously 
maintained, on the ground that the specified 
date actually occurs in it .—Henderson s Vau- 
dois, p. 5. 

About this time appeared a very remarkable 
man, Peter Waldo. He was a native and mer¬ 
chant of Lyons, and was induced to leave the 
Church of Rome from the recent introduction 
of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the 
idolatrous worship connected with its observ- 


20 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

ance. Convinced that no change passed on the 
wafer, in the so-called act of consecration, he 
refused to bend before it. Abandoning his com¬ 
mercial engagements, he distributed his goods 
among the poor, became a preacher of the Re¬ 
formation, and soon gathered around him many 
followers. 

Up to this period the only edition of the 
Scriptures was the Vulgate, in Latin; and to 
Waldo, assisted most probably by others, belongs 
the honor of first translating the Gospels, and 
some other portions of Scripture, into the 
French language. Threatened in consequence 
with excommunication and the penalties of 
heresy, he refused to yield; and so much was 
he favored by the people, that they afforded 
him shelter or concealment for three years. At 
length, the pope anathematized him and his 
adherents, and charged the archbishop to pro¬ 
ceed with the utmost rigor. No longer could 
a refuge be found in Lyons. Waldo, however, 
escaped from the rage of persecution, and his 
disciples were generally dispersed. 

Waldo obtained an asylum in Dauphiny, 
where his preaching was eminently successful; 
but as persecution again arose, he fled into 
Picardy, where his ministry was also honored 
of God. Subsequently he proceeded to Ger- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 21 

many, proclaiming the Gospel with untiring 
zeal, and rejoicing over many who received the 
truth. He finally settled in Bohemia, where he 
died in 1179, after a ministry of twenty-one 
years. Many of his disciples sought safety 
among the Vaudois of Piedmont, whose num¬ 
bers continued and increased in the north of 
Italy, and the south of France. In the latter 
country they were generally called Albigenses, 
from their inhabiting chiefly the district of Al- 
bigeois. 

To Leger, the historian and Vaudois pastor, 
we are indebted for the preservation of the 
original manuscripts possessed by his Church, 
from the years 1100 to 1230. These works, in 
verse and prose, in the Romance or Vaudois 
language, form the stock of a great number of 
similar productions, animated by the same spirit, 
written in the same dialect, or in Latin, at dif¬ 
ferent periods, but almost all prior to the Re¬ 
formation of the sixteenth century. Anticipating, 
perhaps, the storm that was rising against his 
Church, Leger collected the writings of the 
Vaudois, and sent them, in 1653, to Sir Samuel 
Morland, the English ambassador at the court 
of Turin, who brought them to England, and 
deposited them in the library of the University 
of Cambridge. 


22 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


Some of these writings are controversial, but 
their general character is doctrinal and practical. 
The great truths of the Gospel are taught in the 
terms which the Holy Spirit has chosen. Faith 
and good works, the contemplation of Christ, and 
a life of obedience and devotedness to the Sa¬ 
viour, are happily and invariably combined. 
Patience and resignation under the ills of life, 
the duties of pastors and spiritual guides, of 
husbands and wives, of parents and children, 
the forgiveness of injuries, and the exercise of 
charity and brotherly love, have all their proper 
and appointed place. So high a standard of 
truth and morals at the close of the eleventh 
century, shows a profound knowledge of the 
gospel of Christ. 

The Yaudois Church engraved on its seal a 

O 

burning torch, with the motto, “ Lux lucet in 
tenebris,” (The light shineth in darkness,) and 
in accordance with it displayed great missionary 
zeal. Attired in coarse habits, and absolutely 
bare-footed, the teachers of the people privately 
traveled, two and tw r o, across the mountains and 
along the valleys of the Cottian Alps. They 
remind us of the evangelists sent forth by our 
Lord, and of the apostles whom he afterwards 
charged to bear through the earth the glad 
tidings of meroy. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 23 

In a process instituted by the inquisitor- 
general against a widow, she acknowledged that 
there came to the house of her husband two 
strangers in gray clothes, who, as it seemed to 
her, spake Italian, or the dialect of Lombardy, 
whom her husband received into their house “ for 
the love of God.” We can easily picture those 
holy men, partaking with the family of their 
frugal evening meal, and concerned that their 
conversation should be “ seasoned with salt,” 
and “ ministering; grace to the hearers.” And 
then, after thanksgivings are offered for that 
humble repast, we see one of them producing 
his book, containing, he says, “ the Gospels and 
other precepts of the law.” He reads a portion ; 
he offers a simple exposition of its truths; he 
commends them affectionately to the consciences 
and hearts of all assembled, as absolutely neces¬ 
sary to holiness and happiness; and then all 
bow down before the throne of God, in the exer¬ 
cise of prayer. How simple was such instru¬ 
mentality ! yet it served to implant and sustain 
piety in the souls of multitudes, in times of bit¬ 
ter and relentless persecution; for “ God hath 
chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
the mighty, .... that no flesh should glory 
in his presence.” In every instance of vital and 
prosperous religion a voice addresses us : “Not 


24 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord of hosts.” 

An author of the twelfth century, in Langue¬ 
doc, Bernard de Foncald, says: “ These Vau- 
dois, although condemned by the sovereign 
pontiff’, (Lucius II.,) continued to diffuse with 
surprising audacity, far and wide, through all 
the world, the poison of their perfidy. This is 
why Bernard, lord archbishop of Narbonne, 
opposed them, (at the Council of Lombers, when 
bishop of Lodeve,) in the name of the Church, 
as a fortress; in fact, having assembled a con¬ 
siderable number of the clergy and laity, monks 
and seculars, he brought them to trial. In a 
word, after their cause had been examined with 
great care, they were condemned .”—Maxima 
Biblioth . P. P., t. 24, pp. 1585-6. 

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they 
were brought into notice, in consequence of the 
immense increase of those who, under diverse 
appellations, were generally branded with the 
name of heretics. Pope Innocent III. stirred 
up the civil power to make war against them. 
In a letter to Bertram, bishop of Metz, written 
about the year 1200, he states that several 
of the clergy had procured translations into 
French of the four Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, 
the Psalms, the Book of Job, and other parts of 



INCIDENTS OF THE DEFORMATION. 25 

the sacred writings, and ordered that those who 
read them should be driven out and persecuted 
with the utmost barbarity. With revolting 
profanity he granted, “ in the name of the Lord 
of hosts,” to all who should march against the 
Albigensian* pestilence, the pardon of sin, the 
glory of martyrdom, and the possession of 
heaven. He specially promised that those who 
fell in battle should pass to heaven, without 
touching on purgatory. These rewards assem¬ 
bled half a million of warriors,—bishops, canons, 
soldiers, and people,—from Italy, France, and 
Germany, ready to riot in blood, for the de¬ 
fense of Romanism, and the extinction of what 
they called heresy. 

Of the first attempts at persecution in the 
valleys of Lucerna and Perosa, there is extant 
no detailed account. All we know is, that one 
of the Yaudois leaders was entrapped and sent 
to Marseilles, where he was imprisoned: he 
was afterwards recalled, by the pope’s orders, 
to Piedmont, to be judged, and subjected to 
torture, if needful, that he might denounce his 
associates. 

The agents of persecution subsequently 
caused much suffering, and made many victims. 

* The pope employs here a term derived from the name of the 
Albigenses, whom he regarded as equally heretical. 


26 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

One of them, Borelli, having cited in vain all 
the inhabitants of Frassiniere, Argentiere, and 
the vale of Layse, to his tribunal, caused a great 
number to be arrested. From the latter valley 
one hundred and fifty Vaudois men were 
brought to Grenoble and burned alive, besides 
many women, girls, and even young children. 
Eighty victims were consigned to the secular 
power in the two other valleys ; and, in many 
instances, they were executed with no other 
sentence of the so-called “ holy office,” than that 
they were criminals. A Romanist says, “ There 
is evidence that many accused persons were 
thrown into prison only for the purpose of seiz¬ 
ing on their property. Blood or gold—this is 
what the Inquisition required.”— Perrin , Hist, 
des Vaudois, p. 114. 

Borelli is charged with fearful ravages in the 
winter of 1400, when the mountains were co¬ 
vered with snow, and were, therefore, difficult 
of access. Alarmed by the unlooked-for out¬ 
rage, the villagers attempted to escape to one 
of the highest mountains of the Alps. It was 
indeed a piteous spectacle; murderous foes 
eagerly pursuing men of peace, more anxious 
for their wives and children than themselves, 
while many an unhappy mother carried a cradle 
in one hand, and in the other led some of her 






INCIDENTS OP THE REFORMATION. 27 

tender offspring, numbers of whom were slain 
before they could reach the mountains. Those 
who escaped wandered over the snowy heights, 
amid the darkness of the night, destitute of all 
support or shelter, till many, benumbed by the 
cold, fell a prey to its intensity. Their enemies, 
meanwhile, plundered their dwellings, and de¬ 
stroyed what they could not carry off. They 
are charged with having hung on a tree a poor 
aged Yaudois woman, whom they met with on 
the mountain of Meane; and for more than a 
century afterwards the people were accustomed 
to speak of this dreadful attack, as if it were 
still present before their eyes. 

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the 
persecution of the Yaudois appears to have 
ceased for a time. Many of those assailed in 
other parts sought refuge in the valleys. So 
great did the multitude become, that the land 
could not support them, and numbers went to 
Italy and Naples. About the year 1500, the 
Vaudois of Frassiniere and other valleys, to 
escape the rage of persecution, established 
themselves in the neighborhood of their breth¬ 
ren in the valley of Yolturata. In this way, the 
Yaudois spread themselves over the kingdom of 
Naples, and even to Sicily. 

These colonies maintained direct and constant 


28 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

relation with the Yaudois of the valleys, who, 
according to the decision of their synods, pro¬ 
vided them with pastors. The barbes, or pas¬ 
tors, complying with their established custom, 
undertook their distant journey by two and two ; 
one of them, advanced in years, of practical ex¬ 
perience, and already acquainted with persons 
and places; the other, younger, and who be¬ 
came his companion, in order to be trained for 
the same service. In going and returning they 
visited the faithful who were scattered through 
the towns and country places of Italy, exhorting 
and affording them consolation. The barbes of 
the valleys possessed a house in each of the 
cities of Florence, Geneva, Venice, and pro¬ 
bably in other places; but it was only at 
intervals, when the pastors were engaged in 
their missionary travels, that the faithful 
whom they visited fully enjoyed an evangelical 
ministry. 

In the year 1487, the papal nuncio instigated 
the king of France, the duke of Savoy, and 
other neighboring princes, to collect an army 
of 18,000 men, for the purpose of extirpating 
the inhabitants of the valleys. Wanton cruel¬ 
ties were committed by these troops, augmented 
by 6,000 volunteers from Piedmont. In the 
valley of Angrogna, however, the principal 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 29 

point of attack, the Vaudois, though hitherto 
familiar only with the arts of peace, made so 
spirited a defense, that the armed band was 
routed with great loss. Their subsequent 
history, for a long } eriod, was one of oppres¬ 
sion and persecution, mitigated by partial 
relief. 

In 1665, a storm of unprecedented violence 
burst on the Vaudois. A large armed force 
took possession of the stronghold Pra del Tor, 
and gained the entire command of the country. 
Under the perfidious pretense that they did not 
intend to remain, the inhabitants who had fled 
were induced to return, only to suffer the most 
dreadful outrages. Houses and churches were 
destroyed by fire. A general massacre took 
place. The most horrid crimes were perpetra¬ 
ted. It w r as as if the country were ravaged by 
fiends in human shape. 

It has been well said of the Vaudois: “If 
ever any church was symbolized more appro¬ 
priately than another by the hush burning hut 
not consumed, it is theirs. Every rock on their 
mountains has been stained, every vale and 
cavern in which they sought shelter and rest 
has been soaked with the blood of these saints. 
In every land to which they fled as exiles, and 
which they endeavored to enrich with the 


30 


INCIDENTS OF TIiE REFORMATION* 


knowledge of Christ, the rage of Rome overtook 
them, and cruelties of which Rome only, drunk 
with the blood of saints, was capable, were re¬ 
sorted to> for the purpose of effecting their 
apostasy or extermination. The former was 
found impossible—the latter, in some cases, was 
accomplished.” 

No wonder that their sufferings led Milton to 
pour forth the impassioned prayer :— 

“ Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter’d saints, whose bones 
Lie scatter’d on the Alpine Mountains cold. 

E’en them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 

When all our fathers worship’d stocks and stones, 
Forget not: in thy book record their groans, 

Who were thy sheep, and in thine ancient fold; 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll’d 
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
To heaven. Their martyr’d blood and ashes sow 
O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow 
A hundred fold ; who, having learn’d thy way, 

Early may fly the Babylonian woe ” 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


31 


CHAPTER III. 

The Provencals—Rise of the Albigenses—Count Raymond of 
Toulouse—His nephew, Raymond of Beziers—Crusade against 
the Albigenses—The taking of Carcassone—St. Dominie- 
Origin of the Inquisition. 

It is desirable now to glance at another race of 
the advocates and defenders of the truth in 
early times, to whom allusion has already been 
made. Languedoc, Provence, Catalonia, and 
all the surrounding countries which depended 
on the king of Arragon, were peopled by an in¬ 
dustrious and intelligent race of men, addicted 
to commerce and the arts, and still more to 
poetr}^. They had formed the Provencal lan¬ 
guage, which, separating itself from the Walloon 
Roman, or French, was distinguished by more 
harmonious inflections, by a richer vocabulary, 
by expressions more picturesque, and by greater 
flexibility. This language, studied by all the 
genius of the age, appeared destined to become 
the first and most elegant of the languages of 
Europe. Those who used it renounced the 
name of Frenchmen for that of Provencals; 
they endeavored by it to form themselves into a 
nation, and to separate themselves absolutely 
from the French, to whom they were indeed in- 


32 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

ferior in war, but whom they greatly excelled 
in all the attainments of civilization.— Sismondi. 

Among the intelligent, polite, and gay Pro¬ 
vencals sprang up, in the twelfth century, the 
truly enlightened and pious Albigeois, or Albi- 
genses. The contrast between the gray frieze 
of the latter, and the gay armor of the former, 
was not greater than that of their respective 
manners. Yet they were alike in their history 
and its issue. They struggled for liberty, civil 
and religious, for light rendered the darkness 
visible. Then came the reading of the Scrip¬ 
tures, and preaching of their truths. Then the 
spirit of mental freedom began to work; people 
became bold enough to examine the doctrines 
they were taught, and to avow what others ac¬ 
counted heresy. Several of their confessions 
still remain, and include essentially the faith of 
the Reformation. 

Pope Innocent first sent against them a mis¬ 
sionary expedition. Two and two these monks, 
who took their title from Dominic, the Spaniard, 
whom the pontiff placed at their head, marched 
through its villages barefooted, preaching their 
doctrines, and pretending to work miracles. But 
the efforts of these apostles of superstition ex¬ 
cited only the derision and scorn of “ the sons 
of heresy and error” to whom they came. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


33 


“ The obdurate people,” says Bendict, “ showed 
no desire for conversion; but, on the contrary, 
treated their instructors with contempt and re¬ 
proach.”— Benedict , 1, li, 2. According to Ma¬ 
riana, “ The Albigenses increased every day ; 
and, in their stupidity, rejoiced in their own 
blindness.”— Mariana , ii, 686. 

Other measures were now taken. A decla¬ 
ration was drawn from the simple people of 
their faith, and statements were obtained of the 
names and abodes of the most prominent, en¬ 
lightened, or zealous among them. Those who 
were yet in the communion of the Church of 
Rome were asked why they did not exterminate 
the heretics. The answer was, “We cannot do 
so; we live among them ; they are our relatives 
and friends, and we behold the goodness of 
their lives.” The heretics themselves were 
questioned, and their answers tortured to suit 
the purposes of the subtil inquirers. To arms 
there was then a speedy resort. The pope, as 
we have seen, promised all who should march 
against the Albigensian pestilence, the pardon 
of sin, the glory of martyrdom, and the posses¬ 
sion of heaven. 

The history of Count Raymond of Toulouse, 
is intimately connected with that of the Albi¬ 
genses. He was undoubtedly one of those 


34 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

uncertain, undecided characters, who are more 
likely to injure than to benefit the cause they 
espouse. The struggle in which he engaged 
was one to preserve his own rights; but these 
were blended with the properties, liberties, and 
lives of the people of God. Such indeed was 
the case with many a Provencal lord, and many 
a gallant knight of that period. 

Far superior to Count Raymond of Toulouse 
was his nephew, Raymond Roger, viscount of 
Beziers, who was deeply interested in defend¬ 
ing the lives and liberties of his Albio-ensian 
subjects and friends. “ Pestilential man!” 
wrote Pope Innocent to his uncle Raymond, 
“ what pride has seized your heart, to refuse 
peace with your neighbors, and brave the Divine 
laws, by protecting the enemies of the faith ? 
Do you not fear eternal flames ? Ought you not 
to dread the temporal chastisements you have 
provoked by so many crimes ?” 

Frightened into submission at the hostile pre¬ 
parations making against him, the vacillating 
Raymond engaged to exterminate the heretics 
from his States ; but his heart was not in the work 
of slaughter. Far too slowly did it proceed to 
please Peter del Castelnau, the pope’s legate, 
who, coming to visit this sovereign lord, assailed 
him as a perjurer, a supporter of heretics, and a 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 35 

traitor. Nor did lie fail to pronounce the sen¬ 
tence of excommunication—that fearful ban, 
whose blighting denunciation is supposed in¬ 
stantly to alight upon its victim, and then to 
follow him step by step on his earthly way, 
withering all that he loves, all that he has, all 
that he does, tracking him even to the grave it- 
self, and clinging to his soul, in the unseen world, 
like an infected garment, destroying rest, and 
peace, and hope, forever and ever. 

But the course of Castelnau was suddenly ter¬ 
minated. In a hostelry beside the Rhone he 
was killed, in a brawl with one of the followers 
of Raymond of Toulouse. This sealed the count’s 
fate. He w'as anathematized in all churches, 
the following being the terms of the papal bull: 
“And, as following the canonical sanction of the 
holy fathers, we must not keep faith with those 
who keep not faith with God, and who are sep¬ 
arated from the communion of the faithful, we 
discharge, by apostolical authority, all those who 
believe themselves bound towards this count, by 
an oath either of alliance or fidelity; we permit 
every Catholic man to pursue his person, to oc¬ 
cupy and retain his territories, especially for the 
purpose of exterminating heresy.” Such was 
the cruel and impious decree of a professed fol¬ 
lower of “ the meek and lowly Jesus.” 


36 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

Raymond shrank in dismay from a war with 
the Church, now impending from this home cru¬ 
sade. To avert it, if possible, his nephew accom¬ 
panied him to its leader, the abbot of Citeaux, 
and the legate of the pope, Arnold Amalric. 
The count and the viscount declared their inno¬ 
cence of the death of Castelnau, their freedom 
from all taint of heresy, and their anxious desire 
to be heard by the pope, and to propitiate his 
favor. They found, however, that they had 
nothing to expect; and on their withdrawal, 
Raymond Roger informed his uncle that their 
only hope now lay in making as good a defense 
as they could against the crusading host. 

Raymond of Toulouse, terrified, vacillating, 
and superstitious, was only anxious to appease 
by submission, instead of resisting by valor. 
After much altercation, the uncle and the ne¬ 
phew parted ; the one to dispatch an embassy, 
headed by an archbishop, to the pontiff, praying 
for pardon and peace—the other, to fortify his 
towns, and prepare his followers for the onslaught. 

The papal conditions offered to Raymond of 
Toulouse were, that he should join the crusade, 
and assist in destroying the heretics ; and that, 
as a guarantee of his faith, he should deliver up 
seven of his strongest castles to the papal forces ; 
as a recompense, he was. in due time, to receive 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 37 

absolution. Arnold Amalric was also counseled 
“ to employ craft with regard to this count; for,” 
added the pope, “ in this case it ought to be 
called prudence. We must attack separately 
those who are separated from unity. Leave for 
a time the count of Toulouse, employing towards 
him a wise dissimulation, that the other heretics 
may be the more easily defeated ; and that, after¬ 
wards, we may crush him when we shall be left 
alone .”—Epistles of Innocent III. Hist, de 
Languedoc. 

At length the crusading host was assembled, 
of which large numbers were at once poured into 
the region of Provence. For a term of service 
of only forty days, spiritual indulgences were to 
be abundantly granted, with the prospect of the 
plunder of the Albigenses. The preaching 
monks heralded the army, and were followed by 
warriors armed with scythes and clubs. 

The Count of Toulouse, observing their ap¬ 
proach towards his States, renewed his suppli¬ 
cations and submissions, delivered up his seven 
castles, and was conducted into the church of 
St. Gilles, with a cord about his neck. He was 
afterwards scourged around the altar, in token 
of his reconciliation to the Church and the pope, 
and he was then allowed to take the cross, and 
to fiffht against his friends and relatives. 

O O 



38 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


His nephew, on the contrary, had repaired to 
Montpellier, where the crusading* army, with the 
abbot of Citeaux, had halted. AVith that func¬ 
tionary he again pleaded his cause, but only to 
be told that he must as he best could defend 
himself by arms,—that words were of no avail, 
and that he should be shown no mercy. Then 
Raymond of Beziers sounded the tocsin of war 
through his petty States, and summoned his 
vassals and friends to a deadly struggle. 

The Crusaders now advanced : one castle after 
another fell or capitulated ; and wherever heresy 
was thought to exist, men, women, and children 
were exultingly burned. The host was led by 
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, in right of 
his mother, an English countess, who, having 
v r hetted his sword against the infidels in Pales¬ 
tine, wielded it with greater pleasure against the 
Provencals, whose lands could reward his fiery 
zeal. His guide was the abbot of Citeaux. 

The young viscount, menaced with dangers, 
could only employ simple bravery for his de¬ 
fense, trusting in the righteousness of his cause. 
His two most important cities and strongholds 
were Beziers and Carcassone, distant from each 
other about six or seven hours’ journey. Hav¬ 
ing seen the first strengthened and provisioned, 
he assembled the citizens and garrison, describ- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 39 

ed their situation, and exhorted them to defend 
their lives to the last. And scarcely had he 
left them, in order to hasten to Carcassone—the 
fortress where his latest hopes were centred— 
before the white-cloaked Crusaders were seen, in 
three divisions, advancing towards Beziers. 

They encamped beneath the walls in the 
month of July, 1209. To them the bishop of 
the city treacherously went forth, bearing to the 
future legate a list of all the actual or suspected 
heretics, and stipulating that if these were de¬ 
livered to the flames, the lives of the others 
should be spared. He returned to urge on the 
citizens the surrender of the most helpless of 
their number. “ Tell the legate,” replied these 
gallant men, “ that our city is good and strong; 
that our Lord will not fail to succor us in our 
great necessity ; and that rather than commit 
the baseness demanded of us, we would eat our 
own children.” But when they beheld the as¬ 
semblage of tents and pavilions, they were 
greatly astonished, and began to doubt the 
goodness of their eity. To avoid the horrors of 
a siege, when conducted by such a host, they 
thought one blow would be most effective : and, 
while their enemies were yet employed in tracing 
out their camp, the garrison made a sortie, and 
attacked them suddenly. 


40 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


But the trained soldiers of Rome, and the 
warriors of Palestine, had little to fear from the 
undrilled though ardent army of Provence, who 
were easily driven back. On a given signal, the 
immense army of the besiegers, rising at once, 
swept on to the assault, bore down the scanty 
band to the gates, entered the city with storm, 
and secured for themselves its possession. In 
the haste and surprise of the moment, the victo¬ 
rious leaders demanded of the abbot how they 
should treat the citizens, some of whom were 
accounted heretics, and others not. The legate 
of the pope pronounced the memorable answer : 
“ Kill them all!—the Lord will know those that 
are his.”— Velly, iii, 441. 

The fixed population of Beziers did not ex¬ 
ceed 15,000 persons, but all the inhabitants of 
the country had either taken refuge there, or 
sent thither for security their wives and families. 
The multitude hurried to the churches; the 
clergy and canons surrounded the altar; and the 
bells were tolled. But these bells became fewer 
and fewer, and their sounds fainter and fainter, 
until, horrible to relate, not a hand was left to 
toll them—not a living creature remained in 
Beziers! According to the abbot of Citeaux, 
there were fifteen thousand victims; according 
to others, more likely to approach the truth, 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 41 

sixty thousand were mercilessly butchered.— 
Mezeray , ii, 619. 

Meanwhile the young viscount, burning with 
grief and indignation, shut up himself, and the 
remnant of his friends, followers, and vassals, in 
Carcassone, vowing to defend their lives and 
liberties with their latest breath. Around him 
were those who had lived in pleasure,—the lovers 
of gayety, and song, and learning; those who 
had given up their hearts to piety, and wanted 
to serve God according to the dictates of con¬ 
science ; and those also who, without dissenting 
from the Church of Rome, spurned at tyranny 
and thraldom, temporal and spiritual, and who 
esteemed it better to die as men and soldiers 
than to live as slaves. But beyond the walls, 
far almost as the eye could reach, stood the 
tents of the besiegers, and within them Avere the 
gay, chivalrous soldiers, to whom Avar Avas a 
pastime; the zealot, Avho fought in the hope 
of meriting salvation ; the penitent, who fought 
for pardon ; the needy, who fought for plunder, 
—a host Avhich might Avell cause even a stout 
heart to quail. 

The ardent Raymond Roger tAvice repulsed 
the besiegers, and, full of hope, bore the tidings 
to the anxious, trembling friends within his 
castle. But, at length, the suburb he defended 


42 


INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 


for a week proved untenable, and, setting fire to 
it, he withdrew with his troops within the citadel. 
For a time Simon de Montfort and the blood¬ 
thirsty abbot were kept at bay; when, finding 
arms useless, they had recourse to other means. 

Don Pedro II., king of Arragon, was the 
uncle of Raymond Roger, and, admiring the 
heroism of his nephew, which he foresaw must 
fail, went to the camp of the crusaders, to ne¬ 
gotiate for his deliverance. The abbot and De 
Montfort, seeing the dissatisfaction of their 
troops, hailed the visit of the Spanish prince 
as most auspicious, and engaged him to enter 
Carcassone, and confer with its young lord. 

Raymond rejoiced to see his gallant friend 
and relative, and freely acknowledged that he 
could not maintain his position, “ on account,” 
he said, “ of the multitude of countrymen, 
women, and children, who are here. I cannot 
reckon them, and they die every day in num¬ 
bers. But were only myself and my people 
here, I would rather die of famine than sur¬ 
render to the legate.” 

On these expressions being related to the 
abbot, he sent word to the viscount that the 
terms offered him were, to quit Carcassone, 
with twelve others, leaving all the rest of the 
garrison and the people to the disposal of him- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 43 

self and liis ministers. “ Rather than leave the 
least of them to his mercy,” said the viscount, 
“ I will be flayed alive.” Don Pedro, who had 
carried the proposal against his will, heard with 
pleasure its indignant rejection, and, turning to 
the citizens, said, “ You now learn what you 
have to expect: mind and defend yourselves 
well; for he who defends himself finds good 
mercy at the last.” 

Scarcely had the king of Arragon announced 
the result of his mission, than a furious assault 
was made on Carcassone. But the defenders, 
inspired by all that makes men—yes, and even 
women—brave, gallantly repulsed them; deli¬ 
cate hands aiding in the work of withstanding 
their bitter and remorseless foes. Disappointed 
and wearied, the crusaders retired : their term 
of service for forty days, in which many had 
found little pleasure or honor, was about to 
expire, and numbers preferred to renounce it. 
Simon de Montfort and the legate alike became 
uneasy; and Viscount Beziers, unconscious of 
what was passing in the camp of his adversaries, 
was oppressed with fears and anxieties for his 
people. The horrors of famine were beginning 
to be felt; the cisterns were drying up; and 
wives and mothers, as well as soldiers and 
leaders, looked anxiously at him. 


44 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


In this extremity of the conflicting parties a 
proposal was made for an amicable interview 
with the legate. Raymond gladly accepted it, 
supposing that his rights only required to be 
pleaded to be promptly admitted. On the 
contrary, the legate coolly told him that he must 
leave his people to make what terms they could 
for themselves, but as for himself, he was, and 
must remain, a prisoner. Three hundred fol¬ 
lowers, who had accompanied him to the cru¬ 
sading camp, were indeed already in custody; 
and he was consigned first to the duke of Bur¬ 
gundy, and afterwards, from lgs leniency, to 
that of the savao-e de Montfort. 

O 

At sunrise next morning, the crusaders pre¬ 
pared to fall on the devoted Carcassone. Against 
it they advanced with shoutings, and in formi¬ 
dable array. But its stillness might have cast a 
chill on many a heart. Not a sound was heard ; 
no armor glanced in the sunbeams; no anxious, 
timid forms appeared, stealing a hurried look 
over the battlements on the fearful plain below; 
the banner still waved from the keep, but around 
it was the stillness of death. Onwards, how¬ 
ever, did the crusaders advance; they entered 
Carcassone, but only to find it a desert; its 
streets, its houses, were empty! For intelli¬ 
gence of their lord’s seizure had been conveyed, 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 45 

by some means, to the people he had so gal¬ 
lantly defended, together with the information 
that a secret passage conducted through a cave 
of extraordinary length to another place of re- 
fuo-e. Thus the walls of Carcassone alone were 

O 

left, as they are to this day, a memorial of the 
past! 

The three hundred knights of the viscount, 
together with some of the poor creatures who 
were found about Carcassone, were committed 
to the flames. It is believed that Raymond 
Roger died by poison. His lands, honors, and 
titles, were conferred on de Montfort. Don 
Pedro, after a vain attempt at an alliance with 
the papal powers, fell at Muret fighting against 
them. At the siege of Toulouse, a sortie was 
made while de Montfort was attending mass. 
News was brought to him of the fact, but he 
was unwilling to quit the church. At the mo¬ 
ment of the elevation of the host, his patience 
Avas exhausted ; he rushed forth to lead on his 
soldiers. A stone, said to be thrown by the 
hand of a woman from the Avail of the city, 
struck him on the head, and the scourge of the 
Provencals was no more. Raymond of Tou¬ 
louse, adhering to the Church that stripped him 
of his lands and dignity, endured all the horrors 
of excommunication, remained on his knees out- 


46 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

side the churches which he was not allowed to 
pollute by entering, and died, as he lived, the 
victim of superstition. His body was not suf¬ 
fered to have the rites of burial. 

The traveler may well linger on the remains 
of Carcassone with deep interest. The new 
town was once only a suburb to the ancient one, 
and a part of its old dark walls are to be seen 
amidst the modern white buildings of this cheer¬ 
ful and flourishing place. The picturesque and 
frowning fortress is, perhaps, one of the most 
unchanged of the feudal edifices of France. 
There still uprise the great, dark, giant walls— 
the interior ones at least—that, in the beginning 
of the thirteenth century, were surrounded by 
the Crusaders of Rome. These walls surmount 
an extensive platform of rock, which rises out 
of the large plains so general in Languedoc. 
Standing on the battlements of the fortress, the 
imagination can easily cover the plain beneath 
with the pomp and circumstance of war, while 
the mind is appalled by the remembered atro¬ 
cities so cruelly perpetrated. 

Lavaur, a city of Languedoc, was taken by 
storm in 1211 ; Aimeric, the governor, was 
hanged on a gibbet, and Girarda, bis lady, was 
thrown into a well, and overwhelmed with stones. 
Eighty gentlemen, who had been made prison- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 4*7 

ers, were slaughtered like sheep, in cold blood. 
Four hundred were burned alive, to the great 
joy of the crusaders.— Velly, iii, 454. The 
soldiery attended high mass in the morning, 
and then proceeded during the day to waste the 
country and murder its population. “ One 
shudders,” says Velly, “while he relates such 
horrors.” And yet, he says, “the army of the 
cross exulted in the massacre of Lavaur, and 
the clergy sung a hymn to the Creator for the 
glorious victory.”— Velly, iii, 454, 121. Other 
authorities attest the same fact. 

Languedoc, a country flourishing and culti¬ 
vated, was thoroughly wasted by the ruthless 
and cruel desolators of Rome. Its cities were 
burned ; its inhabitants were swept away with 
fire and sword ; its plains became a desert. A 
hundred thousand Albigenses fell, it is said, in 
one day, and their bodies were heaped together 
and burned. For three months, detachments, of 
soldiers were dispatched in every direction, to 
demolish houses, destroy vineyards, and ruin the 
hopes of the husbandman. The women were 
treated with the utmost brutality. Every evil 
was recklessly perpetrated. The war, with all 
its sanguinary accompaniments, lasted twenty 
years; and the Albigenses, during that time, 
were not the only sufferers. Three hundred 


48 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

thousand crusaders fell on the plains of Lan¬ 
in this crusade Dominic appeared, as we 
have seen, preaching and pretending to work 
miracles; but he also encouraged the warriors 
in the work of massacre and murder. He 
marched at the head of the army with a 
crucifix in his hand, and urged the soldiers to 
deeds of death and destruction. According to 
Benedict, he was the inventor of the Inqui¬ 
sition. It had, during his superintendence, no 
legal tribunal, and the engines of torment were 
not what they were in after days. But he 
inflicted sufferings on the suspected, at which 
the heart sickens. He convicted a hundred 
and eighty Albigenses, who were at one time 
committed to the flames. Such was the man, 
who to this day occupies a prominent place 
in the Romish calendar. The Roman missal, 
having eulogized his supposed merits, even 
prays for “ temporal aid through his inter¬ 
cession !” 

The Inquisition was first established in Lan¬ 
guedoc. In 1229, the Council of Toulouse 
appointed a priest and three laymen to search 
for the partisans of heresy. The synod of Alby, 
in 1254, commissioned a clergyman and a lay¬ 
man to engage in the same dreadful task. The 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 49 

tribunal afterward received various alterations 
and accessions of power, until it perpetrated 
the utmost atrocities in Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
and Goa. 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Culdees—Columba—Iona—Labors and trials of Wiclif— 
His translation of the Bible—John of Gaunt—Queen Anne of 
Bohemia—The Lollards—Lord Cobham—Followers of Wie- 
liff in Scotland. 

The members of a very ancient religious frater¬ 
nity, called Culdees, exhibit such a simplicity 
of views and habits, as necessarily leads us to 
associate them with the men of more primitive 
times. Their principal seat was the Island of 
Iona, or Icolumkil, one of the western islands of 
Scotland. They owe their establishment to 
Columba, a native of the last-mentioned country, 
who, after leading the northern Piets to Christi¬ 
anity, landed at Hii, or Iona, so early as the 
year 563, and received the island from the king 
of the people for the purpose of founding a 
college. 

Here he taught his disciples the Scriptures, 
to the study of which he was devotedly attached. 
When they were duly qualified, Columba sent 
them forth to evangelize the dark and benighted 

4 



50 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

regions around. The college indeed was the 
seat and centre of literature and piety, and from 
hence these blessings were diffused, not only 
over the British islands, but through many parts 
of Europe. Its inmates and missionaries held 
no fellowship with the Church of Rome; they 
determinately rejected many of its doctrines 
and practices, and for many centuries maintained 
their ground against the usurpations of the pa¬ 
pal see. 

The ruins of their edifices still remain, as me¬ 
morials of the zealous and devoted labors of 
Columba, his associates, and successors. Iona 
is the burial-place of forty-eight Scotch crowned 
heads, four Irish kings, eight Norwegian prin¬ 
ces or viceroys of the island, and a multitude 
of nobility and religious orders. The remains 
of the once celebrated cathedral cannot fail to 
interest the traveler, and to excite the deepest 
emotion in the heart of the Christian. 

It was under the influence of such feelings 
that Dr. Johnson said, “ We were now treading 
that illustrious island which was once the lumi¬ 
nary of the Caledonian regions ; whence savage 
clans and roving barbarians derived the benefit 
of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To 
abstract the mind from all local emotion would 
be impossible if it were endeavored, and would 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 51 

be foolish if it were possible. Whatever with¬ 
draws us from the power of our senses; what¬ 
ever makes the past, the distant, or the future 
predominate over the present, advances us in 
the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me 
and from my friends be such frigid philosophy, 
as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, 
over any ground that has been dignified by wis¬ 
dom, bravery, and virtue. The man is little 
to be envied whose patriotism would not gain 
force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose 
piety would not grow warmer among the ruins 
of Iona .”—Journey to the Western Islands of 
Scotland. 

Pope John XXII., in his bull for anointing 
king Robert Bruce, complained that there were 
many heretics in Scotland. In the eleventh 
contury, Margaret, the queen of Malcolm, suc¬ 
ceeded in establishing a general conformity 
both of doctrine and mode of worship with the 
Church of Rome. For this she was canonized, 
and even chosen for the patron saint of Scot¬ 
land. 

England, meanwhile, greatly suffered from 
the Romish dominion. Indeed, the unparalleled 
exactions of the pope nearly drained it of its 
wealth. Claiming the disposal of all ecclesias¬ 
tical offices, he generally bestowed them on 


52 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

foreigners, who, by his permission, received the 
profits without residing in the kingdom; while 
their benefices were farmed to the English, who 
served them for very small sums. Civil causes, 
when important, being brought, by contrivance, 
into the ecclesiastical courts, were carried to 
Rome, and the sums of money annually expended 
for these and numerous other purposes, amounted 
to two-thirds more than the produce of the 
royal treasury. 

At the commencement of the fourteenth 
century, Popery was in full power, and rioting 
in immense revenues. Among its zealous and 
indefatigable agents were those called monks, 
from the word meaning solitary and alone; and 
friars or brothers , from the societies into which 
many were formed. Several of these orders 
had no settled support, and, resolving to have 
none, they wandered about from place to place, 
living on the gifts of others: hence they were 
called mendicant or begging friars. Pope In¬ 
nocent III. was their first patron ; but as at 
length they became troublesome from their 
numbers, they were reduced to four orders, the 
Dominicans, the Carmelites, the Franciscans, 
and the Augustines. Allowed to go where 
they pleased, they made themselves familiar 
with all ranks ; and as they were regarded gen- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 53 

erally with very high veneration by the people 
of Europe, their influence became extensive and 
powerful. 

At an early period, however, Bishop Grosse¬ 
teste animadverted with great boldness on the 
abuses of the popedom; and the zeal of Brad- 
wardine, archbishop of Canterbury, must have 
produced considerable results. In 1284, lie de¬ 
nounced the Dominicans, or preaching friars, as 
propagating dangerous errors. In the year 
following, he renewed his complaints against 
them, and against the Franciscans. He accused 
the chiefs of the former of reviving heresy, cen¬ 
sured their falsehood and malice, and charged 
them with calumniating his reputation ; and he 
earnestly inveighed against some of the errors of 
the latter. His humility is apparent in the fol¬ 
lowing sentence from his works: “ Arise, 0 
Lord, judge thy own cause. Sustain him who 
undertakes to defend thy truth; protect, strength¬ 
en, and comfort me ; for thou knowest that no¬ 
where relying on my own strength, but trusting 
in thine, I, a weak worm, attempt to maintain so 
great a cause.” Of one who became singularly 
conspicuous, a more detailed account must now 
be given. 

Richmond, in Yorkshire, placed on the de¬ 
clivity of a hill, arising from the Swale, by which 


54 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


indeed it is half encircled, commanding from 
many .points very fine views of the river, its bold 
rocky banks, and the well-wooded country 
around, more imposing in its appearance from 
the ruins of its castle built on a rock above the 
river, and still bearing marks of its ancient 
grandeur and importance, is said by some to 
have been the birth-place of John Wiclif; but 
others assert that it was a village about six miles 
from the town, which still bears his name. 

Endowed with great penetration, and availing 
himself of the scholastic advantages of his time, 
he claimed not only the power but the right of 
thinking for himself on the most important sub¬ 
jects, and then endeavored to discover the true 
sense of the word of God. No wonder that the 
Spirit of truth became his guide : “ To him that 
hath shall be given, and he shall have more 
abundantly.” 

A successful controversy on behalf of the 
University of Oxford first raised him to public 
notice. It secured also his election to the mas¬ 
tership of Baliol College ; and his after success in 
defending the king and parliament by his un¬ 
answerable writings, and against the papal usurp¬ 
ation, diffused his fame at court and throughout 
the country. Wide, indeed, was its range when 
the king, the parliament, and every disinterested 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


55 


subject in the realm, offered him their tribute. 
Like others afterwards ena-ao-ed in the same 

o o 

cause, he appears to have advanced with an 
honest and intrepid spirit, not clearly seeing the 
point he was destined to reach. He began by 
resisting innovation, but, led on to diligent and 
persevering inquiry, he arrived at the conviction 
that the pope was the “ man of sin ” foretold by 
the apostles. This he declared in 1372. 

Preferred to the divinity professor’s chair at 
Oxford, he had a favorable opportunity for 
avowing his sentiments. Satisfied by a long 
course of investigation that the Romish Church 

o 

was full of error and superstition ; that it violated 
the sacred Scriptures and the rights of con¬ 
science ; and that it was promoted by usurpation, 
imposture, and cruelty, he entered faithfully 
on its exposure. Especially did he dwell on the 
errors and iniquities of monasteries. He declared 
that a regard for religion was not to be expected 
from such men as the clergy of that time, whose 
only object was the advancement of their order. 
In every age, he affirmed, they had invented and 
applied whatever tended to gratify their avarice, 
while they bound men to observe their traditions, 
instead of the word of our Lord and Saviour. 

He proceeded to an attack on the court of 
Rome. He assailed the pope for his pretended 


56 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

infallibility, pride, avarice, and tyranny. He 
openly called him antichrist. He declaimed 
against the pomp and luxury of the bishops, and 
displayed in all his movements pre-eminent 
courage and ability. 

Amidst his labors and persecutions, Wiclif 
was attacked by sickness. At Oxford he was 
confined to his chamber, and reports were circu¬ 
lated that his death was at hand. A favorable 
opportunity was therefore considered by the 
mendicants to have arrived for obtaining a recan¬ 
tation of his charges against them, and it was 
improved without delay. A doctor from each of 
the prevailing orders, accompanied by some of 
the civic authorities, entered the chamber of the 
reformer. At first they offered to him their 
sympathy, and expressed their hope that he 
would recover. It was then insinuated that, as 
he must be aware of their wrongs—wrongs done 
by his sermons and writings—and that, as death 
appeared to be approaching, he must feel com¬ 
punction for the past, they hoped that all his ac¬ 
cusations against them would be explicitly re¬ 
called. 

With perfect calmness did Wiclif in his suf¬ 
ferings listen to their appeal. Whether it might 
have been anticipated by them or not, he had 
no doubt of its character and design. The sen- 


71 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 5 1 

timents he had avowed, so far from loosening, 
had taken a renewed hold upon his mind. The 
feelings he had cherished were, according to his 
deliberate convictions, amply justified. As soon 
as the address of his visitors was concluded, he 
intimated his wish that his attendants would 
raise him in his bed ; then, fixing his eyes on the 
mendicants, and summoning all his strength, he 
exclaimed, with a loud voice, “ I shall not die, 
but live ; and shall again declare the evil deeds 
of the friars !” Disappointed and appalled at 
this reply, the doctors and their civic attendants 
looked confusedly at each other, and hurried 
away. Soon did they find the prediction of the 
reformer fulfilled, uttered as it was in circum¬ 
stances singularly characteristic of the parties 
present, and of the times in which they occurred. 

Hitherto but little had been done to put the 
people into possession of the inspired word of 
God. The first attempt to translate any com¬ 
plete portion of the Scriptures into English, sub¬ 
sequent to the conquest, appears to have been a 
rhyming paraphrase on the Gospels and the Acts 
of the Apostles, entitled “ Ormulum.” A huge 
volume, bearing the name of “Salus Animae,” 
or, in the English of the time, “Sowle Hele,” a 
legendary and Scriptural history in verse, is 
of nearly the same date. In Benet College, 



58 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


Cambridge, there is another work of the same 
description, belonging, it is supposed, to the 
thirteenth century, containing accounts of the 
principal events recorded in the books of Genesis 
and Exodus. In the same collection, there is 
also a copy of the Psalms in English metre, 
which is attributed to about the year 1300 ; and 
two similar works, of nearly the same antiquity, 
are extant, one in the Bodleian library, the other 
in that of Sir Robert Cotton .—Baber s Hist. 
Acct., lxii-lxv. 

But it was not till the middle of the following 
century that we discover any attempt to produce 
a literal translation, even of detached portions of 
the Scriptures. Richard Roll, better known to 
antiquarians as “ the hermit of Hampole,” en¬ 
gaged in a work of this kind about the year 1350. 
He produced, however, little more than half the 
Book of Psalms, and lie annexed a devotional 
commentary to those he translated. Some zeal¬ 
ous men among the clergy, his contemporaries, 
produced translations of such passages of Scrip¬ 
ture as were prominent in the offices of the 
Church, while others ventured to complete sep¬ 
arate versions of the Gospels or Epistles. Some 
portions of the labors of this honorable few have 
descended to us; the versions, which are of vari¬ 
ous merit, are generally guarded by a comment. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 59 

On the memory of Wiclif rests the dis¬ 
tinguished honor of translating all the books 
of the Old and New Testament from Latin into 
English. It was a noble thought, and his mind 
was the first of our Saxon race who received it. 
His object was that the highest and the lowest 
of the people might alike read the Bible in their 
own tongue, and that it might be to all the 
supreme and ultimate standard of faith and 
practice; thus anticipating the memorable de¬ 
claration of Chillingworth, “ The Bible, and the 
Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.” 

That his translation of the Scriptures was ex¬ 
ceedingly offensive to the Romish ecclesiastics 
may be gathered from the language of Knighton, 
a canon of Leicester: “ Christ delivered his 
Gospel to the clergy and doctors of the Church, 
that they might administer it to the laity, and to 
weaker persons, according to the state of the 
times, and the wants of man. But this master 
John Wiclif translated it out of Latin into 
English, and thus laid it more open to the laity, 
and to women who could read, than it had 
formerly been to the most learned of the clergy, 
even to those of them who had the best under¬ 
standing. And in this way the Gospel pearl is 
cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine; 
and that which was before precious, both to 



60 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

clergy and laity, is rendered, as it were, the 
common jest of both! The jewel of the Church 
is turned into the sport of the people, and what 
was hitherto the principal gift of the clergy and 
divines, is made forever common to the laity.” 
Who that thinks aright will not feel that there 
was cause for joy and thankfulness in that which 
Knighton deplored? The “engrafted word” is 
“able to save the soul.” 

It has been denied by some Romanist writers, 
that there was any originality in the purpose of 
Wiclif to translate the Scriptures into the 
vernacular tongue. If credit is to be enjoyed, 
they would eagerly seize it for their own party. 
But their pretenses in this instance are opposed 
by indubitable facts. Walden, one of the an¬ 
tagonists of Wiclif, declared that “ the decrees 
of bishops in the Church are of greater authority 
and dignity than is the authority of the Scrip¬ 
tures,” (Doc. Trial, lib. ii, c. 21 ;) and the 
English clergy, assembled in council, in 1408, 
and under the presidency of Archbishop Arun¬ 
del, issued the enactment: “ The translation of 
the Holy Scriptures out of one tongue into an¬ 
other is a dangerous thing, as St. Jerome testi¬ 
fies, because it is not easy to make the verse 
in all respects the same. Therefore, we enact 
and ordain, that no one henceforth do, by his 


> 

INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 61 

own authority, translate any text of the Holy 
Scriptures into the English tongue, or any other, 
by way of book or treatise; nor let any such 
book or treatise, now lately composed in the 
time of John Wiclif, aforesaid, or since, or 
hereafter to be composed, be read in whole or 
in part, in public or in private, under the pain 
of the greater excommunication.”— Wilkins’s 
Concilia, iii, 317. 

To the clamors of his antagonists Wiclif 
promptly and impressively replied. Thus he 
writes, in one of his earliest vindications: “ It 
has been said, in a former looking-glass for 
secular lords, written in the vulgar tongue, that 
they ought wholly to regulate themselves con¬ 
formably to the law of Christ. Nor are those 
heretics to be heard who fancy that seculars 
ought not to know the law of God, but that it 
is sufficient for them to know that the priests 
and prelates tell them by word of mouth ; for 
the Scripture is the faith of the Church, and the 
more it is known in an orthodox sense the bet¬ 
ter ; therefore, as secular men ought to know 
the faith, the Divine word is to be taught them 
in whatever language is best known to them. 
The truth of the faith is clearer and more exact 
in the Scripture than the priests know how to 
express it; and, if one may say so, there are 


62 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

many prelates who are ignorant of Scripture, 
and others who conceal things contained therein. 
It seems useful, therefore, that the faithful should 
themselves search and discover the sense of the 
faith, by having the Scripture in a language they 
know and understand. Christ and his apostles 
converted men by making known to them the 
Scriptures in that language which was familiar 
to them. Why, then, ought not the modern 
disciples of Christ to collect fragments from the 
loaf; and, as they did, clearly open the Scrip¬ 
tures to the people, that they may know them ? 
The apostle teaches, that we must all stand be¬ 
fore the judgment-seat of Christ, and be answer- 
able for all the goods intrusted to us; it is 
necessary, therefore, that the faithful should 
know these goods, and the use of them, that 
they may give a proper answer. The answer 
by a prelate or an attorney will not then avail, 
but every one must answer in his own person.” 
—Speculum Secularium Dominorum. 

The opposition of the clergy was, however, 
so great, that a bill was introduced to the House 
of Lords, by the prelates, for suppressing Wic- 
lif’s translation. It was then that the duke 
of Lancaster made the bold and memorable de¬ 
claration: “We will not be the dregs of all, 
seeing that other nations have the law of God, 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


63 


which is the law of our faith, written in their 
own language.” Nor did he refrain from say¬ 
ing, “ that he would maintain the possession of 
the Divine law in the tongue of the people, 
whosoever were the promoters of the measure.” 
Others sympathized with him, and the bill was 
rejected. 

Wiclif continued to labor in the cause in 
which he was engaged, in various ways. Milton 
has described his sermons as “ a light, at which 
succeeding reformers lighted their tapers.” 
Many and various were his other writings. One, 
“The Path of Knowledge,” is an exhortation to 
all, whether old or young, to study the Scrip¬ 
tures diligently, especially the New Testament, 
which is, he says, “ full of authority, and gives 
understanding to the simple, especially in all 
points needful to salvation.” 

It is worthy of remark, that at this period the 
Bible was very costly. It appears from a regis¬ 
ter in 1429, that its price was two pounds six¬ 
teen shillings and eight pence, equal to more 
than twenty pounds of our present money; 
while five pounds, too little to purchase two 
copies, were considered sufficient for the yearly 
maintenance of a tradesman, a yeoman, or a 
curate. How gratefully should ( we acknow¬ 
ledge that our lot has fallen in happier days, 



04 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

when tenpence will secure the possession of this 
inestimable treasure ! 

The labors of Wiclif awakened the clamor 
of the highest ecclesiastics. Islip, then arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, took the lead, and deter¬ 
mined to proceed against him with the utmost 
rigor. Wiclif was, in consequence, deprived 
and silenced. But amidst these assaults, and 
the bulls of the pope, he was protected and his 
cause espoused by persons of the highest rank. 
Among these was John of Gaunt, duke of Lan¬ 
caster, the son of Edward III., the brother of 
the Black Prince, and uncle of the youthful king 
Richard II. 

One fact must be mentioned of extraordinary 
interest. The duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, 
would willingly have seen the king, his nephew, 
married to his daughter, by the lady Blanche; 
but it was thought that the young lady was too 
nearly related, being the king’s cousin-german, 
and it was wished that their sovereign should 
choose a queen from beyond sea, in order to 
gain stronger alliances. The sister of the king 
of Bohemia and emperor of Germany, daughter 
of the lately deceased emperor, Charles IV., 
and his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania, 
was then proposed; and the king’s tutor, Sir 
Simon Burley, deputed to go to Germany re- 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 65 

specting the marriage, was very favorably re¬ 
ceived. The union was not, however, immedi¬ 
ately concluded, from the youth of the princess 
Anne, and the civil disturbances that occurred 
in England, in consequence of the insurrection 
of Wat Tyler. 

At length existing difficulties were overcome. 
“She set out,” according to Froissart, “on her 
perilous journey, attended by the duke of Saxony, 
his duchess, who was her aunt, and with a suit¬ 
able number of knights and damsels. They 
came through Brabant to Brussels, where the 
duke of Wenceslaus and his duchess received 
the young queen and her company very grandly.” 
Alarmed at the rumored ravages of the Norman 
cruisers, she tarried with her uncle and aunt 
more than a month, until her near relative, 
Charles V., remanded them into port, “ solely,” 
he said, “ out of love to his cousin Anne, and 
out of no regard or consideration for the king 
of England.” She passed in state from Brus¬ 
sels to Calais, encountered a storm on her 
passage to Dover, and on “ the twentieth day 
after Christmas” was married to Richard II., in 
the chapel royal of the palace of Westminster, 
the newly erected chapel of St. Stephen. 

Some days after the royal marriage, the king 
and queen returned from the country to London, 

5 



66 


INCIDENTS OF TilE REFORMATION. 


and the coronation of Anne took place with 
great splendor. At her earnest request, a gen¬ 
eral pardon was granted by the king. There 
was, indeed, a great necessity for such a respite, 
as the executions since Tyler’s insurrection were 
numerous beyond precedent. The royal bride 
obtained for her mediation the title of “ the good 
Queen Anne and years, so far from impairing 
her popularity, only increased the esteem in 
which the people held this benevolent princess. 
Wiclif was required, indeed, to appear at Lam¬ 
beth, and he obeyed the summons. But, on the 
appointed day, an unlooked-for messenger wait¬ 
ed on the episcopal conclave, over which the 
archbishop presided. It was a gentleman cour¬ 
tier, commanding them not to proceed to any 
definite sentence against Wiclif. His authority 
was John of Gaunt; the bishops were struck 
with a panic, the proceeding was dropped, and 
the heavy punishment that would doubtless have 
been inflicted was entirely averted. 

The nation had now begun to awake to a 
sense of its bondage. The opinions of Wiclif, 
widely diffused, were the chief cause of making 
the people conscious of the iron yoke. The rul¬ 
ing powers shared this feeling. The sovereign 
of England had withdrawn the tribute, so long 
paid to Rome by his predecessors. The menaces 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


67 


of the pope excited no apprehensions in his 
mind. He laid the affair before parliament, who 
decided that such payment was illegal, and a 
surrender of national right; and most strenuous¬ 
ly did they advise a resistance of papal usurpa¬ 
tion. 

Articles of accusation were, however, dis¬ 
patched to Rome against Wiclif, and the pope 
engaged in their prosecution with the greatest 
alacrity. Five bulls were now issued. But such 
missiles had lost much of their former power. 
The bishops were disposed to render profound 
homage to the pope. Courtney, the bishop of 
London, was especially jealous of his dignity. 
Wiclif was, therefore, summoned before the 
svnod of St. Paul’s Cathedral, but he was ac- 
companied by the duke of Lancaster and other 
persons of distinction. He became, in conse¬ 
quence, merely a spectator of the quarrel be¬ 
tween the nobles and the prelates, and left the 
scene of contention not only unharmed, but -with¬ 
out censure. 

The adversaries of Wiclif, zealous as they 
were, were not able to accomplish their designs, 
for the times were exceedingly unfavorable. A 
violent contention had arisen, as to the proper 
holder of the pontificate. Rival claimants to its 
power appeared, and according to Platina, the 


G8 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

Romish historian, it was the period of “ the 
schism of all schisms the worst, and the most 
puzzling.” The attention of the leaders of the 
people of England was also absorbed by the 
political distractions of the period, and to these 
circumstances, together with the patronage of 
Wiclif by distinguished persons, must be 
traced, instrumentally, his freedom from the 
hand of violence. 

Courtney, at that time archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury, at last employed means to silence his for¬ 
midable opponent, who was no less the enemy 
of all unrio-hteousness. He obtained a kino-’s 

o o 

patent to arrest and imprison all who should 
publicly or privately maintain truths which he 
stigmatized as heresies. Wiclif, condemned 
by the Council of Lambeth in 1382, had the 
secret protection of Anne extended to him In 
defending him from the malice of Courtney, she 
was aided by her mother-in-law, Joanna, prin¬ 
cess of Wales, who was considered a convert of 
the reformer, who had been introduced to her 
by the duke of Lancaster. Wiclif, therefore, 
withdrew to his parsonage at Lutterworth, a few 
miles from the city of Leicester. While attending 
divine service in the church of that town, at the 
close of December, 1384, he was seized for the 
second time with palsy. That stroke was fatal; he 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 69 

never spoke again ; liis toils and sufferings on 
earth were exchanged for the bright crown of 
heaven. 

At Lutterworth, there are still some memo¬ 
rials of this eminent man. The chair in which he 
often sat, the chasibule—the Romish garment— 
he once wore as a priest of that Church, and the 
pulpit in which he preached, bearing on its 
rudely smoothed exterior the marks of a distant 
age, may still be seen. Nor will the visitor to 
whose heart the principles of Protestantism are 
dear, fail to notice the monument lately raised to 
his memory in the same church. 

In *the reign of Richard II., three of the fol¬ 
lowers of Wiclif were obliged to do penance 
under the most degrading circumstances; not a 
few suffered imprisonment, but it does not ap¬ 
pear that any were actually put to death. The in¬ 
fluence of Queen Anne and of the duke of Lancas¬ 
ter may have been sufficient to prevent martyr¬ 
dom. At his death there was increased rigor, 
and all who dared to read the Scriptures in their 
own tongue were visited with severe punish¬ 
ment. 

In reference to the faith of Abel, it was said 
by an inspired apostle, “ He being dead, yet 
speaketh and certain it is that the voice of 
Wiclif was heard from the grave, while his in- 


70 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


fluence became widely extended. “ If you met 
two persons on the road,” remarks a writer of 
that period, “ you might be sure one of them 
was a follower of Wiclif.” Great w r as the 
number of converts, “ especially among men of 
rank and learning.” The writings of the re- 

o o 

former, and his translation of the Scriptures, 
were circulated throughout the land and every 
part of Christendom. Esteemed as “ more pre¬ 
cious than gold ” by multitudes at home and 
abroad, who wete longing to be freed from 
Romish tyranny, almost innumerable copies were 
transcribed, and thus became dispersed among 
many nations. 

The followers of Wiclif were called, in re¬ 
proach, Lollards, a name which was probably 
derived from the German Avord lollen, signifying 
psalm-singers. That they were people of evan¬ 
gelical piety is manifest from the tribute borne 
to them even by Reinher, who was a Romish in¬ 
quisitor. He says: “ The disciples of Wiclif 
are men of a serious, modest deportment, avoid¬ 
ing all ostentation in dress, mixing little with the 
busy world, and complaining of the debauchery 
of mankind. They maintain themselves wholly 
by their own labor, and utterly despise wealth, 
being fully content with bare necessities. They 
follow no traffic, because it is attended with so 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 71 

much lying, swearing, and cheating. They are 
chaste and temperate ; are never seen in taverns, 
or amused by the trifling gayeties of life. You 
find them always employed, either learning or 
teaching. They are concise and devout in their 
prayers, blaming an unanimated prolixity. They 
never swear, speak little, and in their public 
preaching lay their chief stress on charity. They 
never mind canonical hours, because they say 
that a paternoster or two, repeated with devotion, 
is better than tedious hours spent without devo¬ 
tion. They explain the Scriptures in a different 
way from the holy doctors and Church of Rome. 
They speak little, and humbly, and are well-be¬ 
haved in appearance.” 

How characteristic is this declaration! Here 
were persons who felt that God is a spirit, and 
requires to be worshiped in spirit and in truth, 
who lived soberly, righteously, and godly, in 
the present world; and yet, as “ they explained 
the Scriptures in a different way from the holy 
doctors and Church of Rome,” seeking the aid 
of that Holy Spirit by whose inspiration they 
were given, they were, in the estimation of 
Reinher, heretics , deserving virulent reproach 
and bitter persecution, and doomed to eternal 
perdition ! Such is the spirit of Popery in all ages. 

Richard II. was deposed in the year 1399, 


72 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

by Henry of Lancaster. The new sovereign 
was the son of John of Gaunt, the kind and 
faithful patron of Wiclif. But, unlike his 
father, he was no sooner seated on the throne 
than he encouraged the ecclesiastics in their 
iniquitous and cruel course. The suppression 
of Lollardism was constantly kept in view, and 
persecutions were general throughout the king¬ 
dom. Now, for the first time in England, mar¬ 
tyrs were burned alive for opposing the abomi¬ 
nations of Popery. From that period, during a 
hundred and fifty years, many followers of 
Christ had “ trials of cruel mockings and 
scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and impris¬ 
onments,” and others counted not their lives 
dear unto them, “ having respect unto the re¬ 
compense of the reward.” 

In the year 1413, Henry IY. died, and was 
.succeeded by his son Henry Y. At this time, 
Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobliam, had become 
peculiarly conspicuous. In early life he was a 
soldier; he might have fought under John of 
Gaunt, in the time of Edward III.; but that his 
conduct as a military man was highly commen¬ 
dable, is abundantly proved. As one of the 
bosom companions of the prince of Wales, his 
youth was spent in dissipation. Of a bold and 
ardent temperament, impatient of control and 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 73 

reckless of consequences, he pursued his thought¬ 
less career, without caring for the morrow or the 
opinion of his contemporaries. He has been 
confounded with the Falstaff of Shakspeare; 
but that writer explicitly states that he was not 
the man, and the error is to be traced to a 
device of his enemies. At length, he entered on 
a new career. The efforts of John of Gaunt 
might have impressed him favorably in refer¬ 
ence to Wiclif, but certain it is that the doc¬ 
trines of the Reformation obtained a profound 
influence on his mind, and he became in conse¬ 
quence an altered man. He felt the vanity and 
sinfulness of the pleasures in which he had been 
accustomed to indulge ; he received the truths 
which our Lord proclaimed to a perishing 
world ; and, “justified by faith,” he had “ peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

As a member of parliament he freely ex¬ 
pressed his opinions in reference to the clergy, 
whose luxury and indolence he appears to have 
deplored before he was anxious to vindicate 
religion from their false teaching. The time 
for doing so was in some respects favorable. 
The labors of Wiclif aroused him gradually 
to the reception of truth, and he acquired 
clearer views and stronger convictions. Not 
that he was equal in real enlightenment to some 


74 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

that succeeded him; they had advantages 
which he did not enjoy. But he was one of 
those who have continued till now, and will to 
the end of the world, who maintain, as the 
corner-stone of the Christian system, the doc¬ 
trine of reconciliation to God through faith in the 
atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour. Anx¬ 
ious for his own spiritual welfare, he zealously 
sought the salvation of others. He caused the 
writings of Wiclif to be copied and widely 
dispersed; he supported three itinerant preach¬ 
ers in different parts of the country ; and thus, 
in various ways, contributed to the spread of 
Divine truth. 

In the face of impending danger, and at the 
risk of the loss of liberty and life, Lord Cobliam 
called on the legislature to check the usurpation 
and cruelty of ecclesiastics. But his appeals 
were fruitless. As he was a favorite of the 
sovereign and the people, his enemies proceeded 
cautiously yet determinately. One of the writ¬ 
ings of Wiclif, possessed by Lord Cobham, 
was read before the king, who declared that he 
had never heard such heresy, and consented to 
their proceeding against him. He wished, 
however, first to try his own powers of persua¬ 
sion ; but on urging this nobleman to submit to 
“ his mother, the holy Church, and as an obedi- 





INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 75 

ent child to acknowledge himself in fault,” he 
promptly replied, “ You must understand, prince, 
I am always ready to obey you, as you are the 
appointed minister of God, bearing the sword 
for the puishment of evil doers. But as touch¬ 
ing the pope and his spirituality, I owe them 
neither suit nor service, as I know him by the 
Scriptures to be the great antichrist, the son of 
perdition, the open adversary of God, and the 
abomination standing, in the holy place.” The 
king would hear no more, and the interview 
ended. 

Violent measures were now taken, and 
throughout the various examinations that fol- 
lowed, Lord Cobham conducted himself with 
the greatest serenity, undaunted courage, and 
ardent zeal for the truth. Consigned to the 
tower, his execution was delayed, and availing 
himself of an opportunity to escape, he fled into 
Wales, and remained there four years. Toward 
the close of the year 1417, he was apprehended 
in the principality, sent as a prisoner to London, 
and, dreadful to relate, he was dragged on a 
hurdle to St. Giles’ fields, hung alive in chains 
upon a gallows, and slowly burned to death by 
a fire beneath, “ praising the name of God,” 
says Fox, “so long as his life lasted.” 

There were other victims of the papal power:— 




76 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

“ Who lived unknown, 

Till persecution dragg’d them into fame, 

And chased them up to heaven.’’ 

Chichele) 7 , archbishop of Canterbury, was a 
more violent persecutor than his predecessor 
Arundel. A law was passed, by his influence, 
in 1415, enacting that the chancellor, judges, 
justices, mayors, sheriffs, and all other magis¬ 
trates, should, on admission to their offices, 
make oath that they would do everything in 
their power to extirpate the Lollards out of the 
kingdom, and assist the ecclesiastical authorities 
in persecuting these followers of Christ. 

In Scotland, to which we have seen the 
Culdees introduced the gospel, there were at 
this time followers of Wiclif, and doubtless 
they experienced similar treatment. In the 
records of Glasgow, Knox found mention of 
James Risby, an Englishman, a disciple of Wic¬ 
lif, who was burned in 1422, for saying that 
the pope was not the vicar of Christ. A few 
years after, Paul Craw, a Bohemian, was con¬ 
victed of holding heretical opinions, and consigned 
to the flames. “ And to declare themselves,” 
says Knox, “ to be the generation of Satan, who 
from the beginning hath been an enemy to the 
truth, and desiring to hide the same from the 
knowledge of men, they put a ball of brass in 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 77 

liis mouth, that he should not give confession of 
his faith to the people; nor should they under¬ 
stand the defense which he had against their 
unjust accusation and condemnation.” Thirty 
persons, called “ the Lollards of Kyle,” a 
district of Ayrshire, were accused of various 
heresies before the king* and his council, by 
Blacater, archbishop of Glasgow; but their 
accuser died shortly after, while on a pilgrim¬ 
age to Jerusalem, and the small number of the 
faithful appear to have had a respite for 
nearly thirty years. 


CHAPTER V. 

Bohemia—Wiclifs works introduced—John IIuss—Diffusion 
of his doctrines—Council of Constance—IIuss a martyr— 
Jerome of Prague persecuted and put to death—Crimes, trial, 
and sentence of John XXIII. 

Again the scene of our narrative changes to 
Bohemia, the most inland country of Germany, 
consisting of an extensive plain, completely in¬ 
closed by a ring of mountains, some of which 
tower aloft to the height of more than 5,000 
feet. From the Fichtelgebirge—the pine moun¬ 
tains near the western extremity—issues the 
chain called the Erzgebirge; these mountains run 
north-east, forming the boundary between Bo- 



78 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

hernia and Saxony, to the left bank of the Elbe. 
From the right bank of that river, east and south¬ 
east, forming in part the frontier against Prussia, 
runs a series of chains, the loftiest eminence of 
which is called the Snow-cap. 

It is stated by Fox, the martyrologist, that 
two Bohemians, who attended Queen Anne, first 
introduced the works of Wiclif to some of 
their countrymen. Count Valerian Krasinski 
confirms this assertion from the History of Po¬ 
land. 

One result was very remarkable. A native of 
Bohemia, named John Huss, secured for himself 
distinction in the University of Prague, to which 
the learned resorted from all parts of Europe. 
It acknowledged that “from his infancy he was 
of such excellent morals, that during his stay 
here, we may venture to challenge any one to 
produce a single fault against him.” Subse¬ 
quently appointed minister of the chapel in that 
city, he entered on his work with zeal; but the 
opportunity he now obtained of perusing the 
writings of Wiclif he was accustomed to de¬ 
scribe as the happiest circumstance of his life. 
Not onl)’- in the pulpit, but in the schools, he 
inveighed against the enormous evils that pre¬ 
vailed, and, in consequence of the notorious cor¬ 
ruption of the clergy, excited considerable atten- 


INCIDENTS OE THE REFORMATION. 79 

tion. His disciples soon became numerous, and 
lie was followed by many members of the uni¬ 
versity. 

In 1398, he was selected by Queen Sophia, of 
Bavaria, the Avife of King Wenceslaus, as her 
confessor. As the monarch had been degraded 
from the imperial dignity, he tolerated the move¬ 
ment that now arose, as distasteful to his ene¬ 
mies, while his queen gave it all the aid she 
could render. As the mind of Huss obtained 
increased light, he exposed existing evils more 
boldly and zealously ; and not only were the 
students and citizens eager to listen to his voice, 
but the nobility and the court crowded to hear 
a man whose name resounded throughout the 
German empire. 

A new impulse was thus given to the moral 
power already in operation. The works of Wic- 
lif were translated into the Sclavonian tongue, 
and read attentively throughout Bohemia. Aware 
of this, Alexander V., as soon as he was seated 
on the papal chair, issued a bull, commanding the 
archbishop of Prague to collect the writings of 
the reformer, and seize and imprison his adhe¬ 
rents. The same spirit was displayed by the 
succeeding pope, John XXIII.; and after various 
appeals, Huss was excommunicated, with all his 
friends and followers. ** 


80 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


The persecution he endured increased his pop¬ 
ularity, and multitudes of all ranks espoused his 
cause. Prohibited, therefore, from preaching, he 
labored assiduously in private instruction, and 
thus cast around with a liberal hand the vital 
seeds of Divine truth. Other means against him 
were now tried, but they could neither impair his 
energy nor chill his ardor, and his own writings, 
like those of his father in the faith, became nu¬ 
merous, both as letters and discourses. 

At length some restrictions were removed, the 
Hussites were permitted to continue their ser¬ 
mons, and the reformer left his retirement and 
returned to Prague. He now declaimed against 
the bulls of the pope, who directed a crusade 
against the king of Naples, and offered certain 
benefits to all who engaged in the enterprise. 
As the people favored the opinions of Huss, they 
were imprisoned and persecuted ; a massacre also 
ensued, but through the whole Huss exhibited 
a spirit truly Christian. 

Returning to his native place, he was protect¬ 
ed by the principal persons of the country. 
Some of the most distressed repaired to him to 
obtain his advice. In this retreat he published 
several of his treatises, which, exciting much 
opposition, he promptly and vigorously defend¬ 
ed. On his subsequent removal to Prague, he 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 81 

engaged in other labors. Fully did he obey the 
charge, “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord.” 

At this period, difficulties that had long op¬ 
pressed the papacy had greatly increased. From 
1305 to 1377 the popes had resided at Avignon, 
but in 1378 Gregory XI. removed the seat of 
authority back to Rome. After his death, the 
French and Italian cardinals could not agree in 
a successor; each party, therefore, chose its own 
candidate, and a schism arose, already alluded to, 
which lasted forty years. On the emperor Sig- 
ismund ascending the throne, in 1411, there were 
actually three popes: Balthazar Cossa, called 
John XXIII., was at Rome; Angelo Corario, 
named Gregory XII., was at Rimini; and Peter 
de Lune, styled Benedict XIII., was at Arragon ; 
each of whom claimed to be infallible, and pour¬ 
ed out his anthemas on the other two. The 
doctrines of Huss were, in the mean time, dif¬ 
fused, and to put a stop to these disorders, Sigis- 
mund, according to the jocose saying of Maxi¬ 
milian I., “ acted the part of beadle to the Ro¬ 
man empire,” and personally visited France, 
Italy, Spain, and England, to summon a general 
council. 

This ecclesiastical assembly was duly con¬ 
vened at Constance, and consisted of the em- 

0 


82 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

peror, the pope, twenty princes, one hundred and 
forty counts, twenty cardinals, seven patriarchs, 
twenty archbishops, ninety-one bishops, six hun¬ 
dred other clerical dignitaries, and about four 
thousand priests. Various were the acts in which 
the council engaged, but the wishes of the emperor 
as to a new state of things were not gratified. 

The council ordered the remains of Wiclif to 
be dug up, and cast forth from consecrated 
ground. Some years, however, elapsed before 
this was done. At length, by the command of 
the pope, his bones were burned to ashes, and 
these were scattered in the neighboring stream. 
But, though Wiclif was dead, truth retained its 
vitality, and was afterwards widely diffused. 
As Fuller says, “The Swift conveyed his ashes 
to the Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the 
Severn into the narrow seas, and they w r afted 
them into the main ocean ; and thus the ashes of 
Wiclif are the emblem of his doctrine, which is 
now being diffused throughout the earth.” 

As, too, the rage of the council Avas hurled 
against Huss and his followers, he traveled to Con¬ 
stance, resolving to defend the principles he had 
avowed. During a journey of three weeks, he was 
received by the people with warm acclamations. 
On his arrival, he was immediately examined be¬ 
fore the pope and the cardinals, and though as- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. . 83 

sured by the pope of his liberty, he was suddenly 
seized by a party of guards in the gallery of the 
council. The pontiff, on witnessing so perfidious 
an act, could only say, “ It was that of the car¬ 
dinals.” 

A prison was now found for Huss in a lonely 
Franciscan monastery, on the banks of the Rhine. 
During his long confinement, he composed some 
interesting tracts. Even members of the Romish 
Church generously interceded for his acquittal, 
but in vain. At length his trial took place ; he 
was advised to abjure his books and recant, and 
on his steadfast refusal, the order was issued that 
he should be degraded from the priesthood, that 
his books should be publicly burned, and that he 
should be delivered over to the secular power. 
With perfect serenity he heard the sentence. 
One petition that he immediately presented was 
a supplication for his enemies. 

They proceeded then to the execution of the 
sentence ; and first they degraded him from his 
office as a priest. For this purpose, the arch¬ 
bishop of Milan, and six other bishops, led him 
to a table, on which lay the priestly habits, with 
which they invested him, as if he were about to 
perform mass. When the alb, the white surplice, 
was put on him, he said, “ My Lord Jesus Christ 
was also clothed in a white robe by Herod, and 


84 . INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

sent by him to Pilate.” As soon as he was 
fully clad in the priestly vestments, the bishops 
once more exhorted him to save his life by re¬ 
canting his errors, while yet an opportunity was 
afforded him; but Huss, addressing the people 
from the scaffold to which he had been conduct¬ 
ed, cried out, with great emotion, the tears 
flowing from his eyes, “ These bishops are ex¬ 
horting me to retract my errors! If the only 
consequence were the reproach of man, I might 
easily be persuaded; but I am now in the 
presence of my God, and I cannot yield to them 
without wounding my conscience, and blasphem¬ 
ing my Lord, who is in heaven; for I have al¬ 
ways taught, written, and preached the doc¬ 
trines of which they now accuse me. How 
could I dare to lift my eyes in heaven, if I were 
to make such a recantation ? How could I ever 
meet the multitude of persons I have instructed, 
if I should now impeach those doctrines which I 
have taught them, and which they have received 
as eternal truths ? Shall I cause them to stum¬ 
ble by an example so base ? No, I will not do 
it; I will not value my body, which must at all 
events die, more than the everlasting salvation of 
those whom I have instructed.” On this the 
bishops and all the clergy exclaimed, “ Now we 
see his obstinacy and malice in his heresy and 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


85 


he was ordered immediately to descend from 
the scaffold. 

When he had come down, the bishops com¬ 
menced the ceremonies of degradation. The 
archbishop of Milan and the bishop of Besan$on 
approached him, and took the cup from his 
hands, saying, “Accursed Judas, who hast 
forsaken the counsel of peace, and allied thyself 
with the Jews! Behold, we take from thee the 
cup in which the blood of Christ is offered for 
the salvation of the world ; thou art no longer 
worthy of it.” Huss replied with a loud voice, 
“ I place all my hope and confidence in God my 
Saviour. I know he will never take from me 
the cup of salvation, but that by his grace I 
shall drink it to-day in his kingdom.” The 
other bishops then came forward, and taking 
from him, one after another, some part of the 
sacerdotal vestments, they each pronounced a 
different malediction. Huss answered, “Most 
gladly do I endure all this reproach for the love 
of the truth, and the name of my Lord Jesus 
Christ.” 

It only now remained to deprive him of the 
tonsure—a circle from which the hair is cut 
from the crown of the head, and enlarged in 
size as the person rises in ecclesiastical dignity. 
Here a violent dispute arose among the bishops, 


80 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

whether they should use the razor or the 
scissors for this purpose. Huss could not 
refrain from turning to the emperor, and saying, 
“ Is it not strange, that, cruel as they all are, 
they cannot agree as to the mode of exercising 
their cruelty ?” After a long debate, they de¬ 
clared for the scissors, and with them they 
cut off the hair in the form of a cross. They 
also scraped the nails of his fingers with a 
knife, to take from him the holy oil, and to 
erase the pretended characters of the priest¬ 
hood. 

When the ceremony of degradation was 
finished, the bishops cried out, “ The holy 
Council of Constance expels John Huss from the 
priesthood, and the sacred office with which he 
was invested, and thus declares that the holy 
Church of God separates herself from this man, 
and delivers him over to the secular power.” 
Before proceeding further, however, they put 
on his head a paper mitre, about two feet high, 
on which were painted three devils, and an 
inscription in large characters, Hcresiarch, 
“ Arch-heretic.” Huss, on seeing it, comforted 
himself with these words, “ My Lord Jesus 
bore for me, a poor sinner, a much more 
painful crown of thorns, and even the ignomi¬ 
nious death of the cross. Therefore, for his 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 87 

sake, I shall most cheerfully bear this, which is 

much easier.” Then the bishops cried aloud, 

“ Now we deliver up your soul to Satan, and 

to hell.” “ But I,” said Huss, “ commit my 

soul to my gracious Lord Jesus Christ.” The 

bishops, then turning to the emperor, said, 

“ The liolv Council of Constance now delivers 
•/ 

up to judgment, and to the secular arm, John 
Huss, who no longer sustains any office in the 
church.” 

When he arrived at the place of execution, 
he fell on his knees, lifted up his eyes to 
heaven, and prayed aloud, in language taken 
from the 31st and 51st Psalms, repeating with 
great emphasis this verse, “Into thine hand I 
commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, 
O Lord God of truth.” While he was at 
prayer, the paper mitre having fallen from his 
head, he looked at it smiling, on which some 
of the guards around him said, “ Put it on 
again; let him be burned with the devils, the 
masters he has served.” Huss began to pray 
again, “ Lord Jesus, I cheerfully suffer this 
terrible and cruel death, for the sake of thy 
holy gospel, and the preaching of thy sacred 
word ; do thou forgive my enemies the crime 
they are committing.” On this the executioners, 
by order of the count palatine, made him cease, 


88 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

and compelled him to walk three times round 
the pile. He then requested permission to 
speak with his jailers; and when they were 
come, he said, “I thank you most heartily, 
my friends, for all the kindness you have shown 
me, for you have behaved to me more as breth¬ 
ren than as keepers. Know also, that my trust 
in ray Saviour is unshaken, for whose name I 
willingly suffer this death, being assured that I 
shall be with him to-day in paradise.” 

The executioners then took him, and bound 
him to a stake with wet ropes. But as his face 
happened to be turned to the east, an honor of 
which some thought the heretic was unworthy, 
they unbound him, and turned his face toward 
the west. They afterward fixed round his 
neck a black, rusty chain, on which he said, 
smiling, “ My dear Master and Saviour was 
bound, for my sake, with a harder and heavier 
chain than this. Why should I, a poor sinful 
creature, be ashamed of thus being bound for 
him ?” The executioners then began to put the 
wood in order. They placed some bundles of 
light wood under his feet, and heaped straw 
and large wood around him up to his neck. 
Before they set fire to the pile, the count pala¬ 
tine and the marshal of the empire, De Pappen- 
heim, exhorted him to recant his doctrines in 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


89 


order to save bis life. Huss cried aloud from 
the pile, “ I call God to witness that I have 
never taught the errors which my enemies falsely 
lay to my charge; I have, in all my discourses, 
aimed at nothing but to deliver men from the 
bondage of sin : therefore I joyfully confirm, 
this day, by my death, the truth which I have 
taught and preached.” 

The pile was then lighted, but Huss began to 
sing and to pray aloud several times, in these 
words: “ 0 Christ, Son of God, have mercy on 
me !” When he afterwards endeavored to speak 
again, the wind drove the flames into his face, 
and stopped his utterance ; still, however, his 
head and his lips were observed to move, as if 
in prayer, for a short time, when the sufferings 
of this faithful servant were ended, and the Lord 
called his soul to his eternal rest. The count 
palatine being informed that one of the execu¬ 
tioner’s servants had preserved Huss’s cloak and 
girdle, ordered them to be burned, with every¬ 
thing belonging to him, fearing lest the Bohe¬ 
mians should venerate them as sacred relics. 
When all was consumed, the executioner put 
the ashes of Huss into a cart, with the earth on 
which he had been executed, and threw the 
whole into the Rhine, which flows near, that 
every possible trace of this holy witness for the 



90 INCIDENTS or THE REFORMATION. 

truth mio'lit be obliterated. But it was said in 

O 

an elegy, composed at the time, “ His ashes will 
be scattered over every country; no river, no 
banks will be able to retain them ; and those 
whom the enemy thought to silence by death, 
sing and publish in every place that gospel 
which their persecutors thought to suppress.” 

A sketch of a distinguished lay-reformer, 
Jerome of Prague, will be found strongly to 
resemble that just given of his eminent contem¬ 
porary. After visiting the university of that 
city, as well as those of England, Paris, Heidel¬ 
berg, and Cologne, he became acquainted, dur¬ 
ing his residence at Oxford, with the works of 
Wiclif. These he translated into his own lan¬ 
guage, and on his return to Prague avowed the 
same principles, and joined the followers of Huss. 
During the confinement of the latter, Jerome 
was cited before the council. Finding on his 
arrival that he could offer Huss no assistance, he 
deemed it prudent to retire, and wrote on 
behalf of his friend to the emperor. He was 
seized at Kirsan by an officer, who apprized 
the council of his captive, and the prisoner 
was ordered to be sent to Couste. Accused 
before the assembly, he was conveyed to a 
dungeon, and was afterward exposed to want 
and torture. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 91 

A dangerous illness now ensued ; attempts 
were made to induce him to recant, but for a 
time he was not to be moved. Suffering at 

O 

length unhappily prevailed ; he acknowledged 
the errors of Waldo and Huss, and avowed his 
adherence to the Church of Rome. But his 
Backward course allowed him no repose, and 
as his own reproaches became intolerable, he 
renounced his retraction, and demanded a second 
trial. Again brought before the council, he 
valiantly maintained the truth. 

Powerful was his defense, but it failed to 
affect those to whom it was addressed. Not 
more impervious is the rock to the sunbeams, 
than were their hearts to the dictates of truth 
and compassion. His martyrdom quickly fol¬ 
lowed. When surrounded by blazing fagots, 
he cried out, “ O Lord God, have mercy upon 
me!” and a little afterwards, “Thou knowest 
that I have loved thy truth.” With a cheerful 
countenance, observing the executioner about to 
set fire to the wood behind his back, he cried 
out, “ Bring thy torch hither: perform thy of¬ 
fice before my face; had I feared death, I might 
have avoided it.” As the wood began to blaze, 
he sang a hymn, which the violence of the flames 
did not interrupt. 

The people of Bohemia, not only of humble 


92 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

blit of high rank, who had espoused the doc¬ 
trines of Huss, were greatly excited by his 
cruel martyrdom. A long memorial against it 
was signed by upwards of a hundred noblemen, 
and more than a thousand of the gentry. The 
whole nation openly declared his innocence; 
while such was the attachment of his numerous 
friends, that they carried earth from the place 
of his execution into Bohemia. They also 
commemorated his martyrdom by elegies, 
medals, and pictures, and by the observance of 
a service on the anniversary of his death. 

In vain -were protestations made to the coun¬ 
cil ; its persecutions were unrelentingly contin¬ 
ued. The followers of Huss were excommuni¬ 
cated ; they were deprived of their churches, 
and money was offered to any ivho would 
apprehend them. Hundreds were in conse¬ 
quence shut up in deep mines; some were 
drowned; others were burned ; but, like their 
leader, they were faithful unto death. 

A single fact will illustrate the spirit of the 
persecuted. A Hussite pastor, after many suf¬ 
ferings, was placed on the pile, with three 
peasants and four children. Exhorted, for the 
last time, to abjure their heresies, the pastor 
replied, “ God preserve us from it! We are 
ready to suffer death; not once only, but, if it 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


93 


were possible, a hundred times, rather than 
deny that Divine truth which has been so 
clearly revealed to us in the gospel.” The pile 
was now lighted, when, taking the children in 
his arms, he joined with them in a hymn of 
praise, and calmly resigned his spirit. 

It has been well remarked, “ When the 
question is insultingly put by the Romanists, 
‘ Where was Lutheranism—where was Calvinism 
—where was the boasted doctrine of Cranmer, 
Knox, Zwingle, before the sixteenth century V — 
we are ready with our reply : This doctrine was 
not merely in the Scriptures, but in the hearts 
and on the lips of a continuous succession of 
witnesses ; it was professed by Churches, taught 
by a series of pastors, and sealed by the blood 
of thousands of martyrs. ‘ But these—how 
few they are!’ We answer, first, they would 
be many more, had not a sanguinary despotism 
‘ worn them out,’ from age to age, by the sword 
and fire ; and, secondly, they doubtless were, in 
every age, many more than can be fully ascer¬ 
tained, inasmuch as their triumphant enemies 
have used every means of fraud and calumny to 
distort, or to expunge from the page of history, 
the evidence whence the extent of their own 
horrid malice might have been learned by pos¬ 
terity.”—“ Natural History of Enthusiasm 


94 INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 

If, however, the disciples of Christ were called 
to suffer for his great name’s sake, the day of 
retribution came to one of his determined ene¬ 
mies. John -XXIIL proceeded towards Con¬ 
stance, in all the pomp of his power; but his 
carriage was overturned on one of the mountains 
of the Tyrol, within sight of the city. Consider¬ 
ing this accident as a most unlucky omen, he 
passionately exclaimed, on getting up, “ By the 
power of Satan behold me fallen! Why did I 
not remain quietly at Bologna?” And then, 
looking down on the city, he added, “ I see 
how it is: that is the pit in which the foxes are 
snared.” 

At the opening of the council, and during the 
celebration of mass by the pope, the emperor, 
according to custom, and attired as a deacon, 
read the Gospel. As John heard the words, 
“There went out a decree from the emperor 
Augustus,” he became pale, and trembled. 
Sigismund ascended the throne, which had been 
erected in the church, with his empress on his 
right hand, and the electors of Brandenburg 
and Saxony, bearing the sword and sceptre, on 
each side. John now presented a sword to the 
emperor, urging him to use it in defense of the 
council—the last act of his wicked and wretched 
pontificate. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


95 


The struggle between the rival popes and the 
emperor had now reached its height. Gregory 
XII. had professed himself willing to resign, 
provided the other two did the same; but pro¬ 
testing against John XXIII. being permitted to 
preside at the council. The long-continued dis¬ 
pute was, however, to be terminated in another 
way. 

John seems, if possible, to have exceeded all 
his predecessors in enormity. He moved in 
an extensive sphere of action, and discovered 
throughout his career the deepest depravity. 
So notorious was his atrocity, that the Council 
of Constance appointed a commission to examine 
his conduct. Thirty-seven witnesses were ex¬ 
amined on only one part of the imputations. All 
of these were men of probity and intelligence, 
and many bishops and doctors in theolo^ and 
law. He was, therefore, convicted on the best 
authority, and indeed acknowledged his own 
criminality. 

As to faith—he was convicted of schism, 
heresy, deism, infidelity, heathenism, and pro¬ 
fanity. As to morality—the list of allegations 
contained seventy particulars, but twenty were 
suppressed for the honor of the popedom. 
“ The accusations,” says Niem, “ contained all 
mortal sins, and an infinity of abominations.” 


96 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


Such was the pontiff who, according to the 
Florentine council, was “ the vicar-general of 
God, the head of the Church, and the father 
and teacher of all Christians!” But all these 
accusations were severally adopted by the 
Council of Constance, and were duly signed by 
the cardinals themselves. 

Three bishops now took possession of his 
person, and most abject was the submission of 
the guilty and miserable man. But this did 
not avail: the emperor urged on the proceed¬ 
ings against him; he was deposed, his seal was 
broken, and his armorial bearings effaced. He 
was succeeded by Otho de Colonna, under the 
title of Martin Y. Windech, a councilor of the 
time, said emphatically, “ Otho de Colonna was 
the poorest and most modest of cardinals; but 
Martin Y. became the wealthiest and most 
grasping of popes!” One act is sufficiently 
illustrative of his real character. He raised 
John, notwithstanding all his atrocities, and his 
consequent deposition, to the office of a cardinal, 
and treated him with the same honor and respect 
as the rest of the college. What a contrast 
have we here beheld! John, with all his atro¬ 
cities, was elevated to a rank second only to 
that of the pontificate, and then was interred 
with honor in the church of St. John; while 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 97 

Huss and Jerome were, notwithstanding their 
holiness, tried without justice, and burned with¬ 
out mercy, by a council claiming to be infalli¬ 
ble !* 


CHAPTER VI. 

The Netherlands—Origin of Brotherhoods—The Beguines—Ger¬ 
hard Groot—Gregory of Heimburg—Ruckrath of Wessalia— 
John Wessel—The Reformation in Poland. 

In tracing the movements that took place in 
lands not yet adverted to, it is important to 
remark, that towards the close of the fourteenth 
century institutions were in existence, bearing 
the name of “ fratres communis vitce ”—brother¬ 
hoods, in fact, possessing all things in common. 

They originated in the Netherlands, forming 
part of the great plain of Europe, and not sepa¬ 
rated from Germany on the north-east by any 
natural boundaries. They form one unbroken 
flat, without a hill or rock, and having no forests 
or running waters; they lie in part even below 
the level of the sea, against the inroads of which 
they are protected, partly by immense dikes, 
and partly by sand-hills, which have been cast 
up by the ocean, and running parallel with the 

* For a more complete history of Huss and Jerome, see “ Mar¬ 
tyrs of Bohemia,” No. 376, Youth’s Library, 

7 



98 


INCIDENTS OF T1IE REFORMATION. 


coast, protect it against the element to which 
they owe their origin. 

Prior to the formation of the institutions just 
mentioned, communities had been formed, con¬ 
sisting entirely of the ladies of the nobility and 
gentry of the country, who had perished in the 
Crusades. They bore the name of Beguines , or 
praying women. At a subsequent period, an 
association of men, called Beghards, or praying 
men, was formed. They were very numerous 
at Cologne, and they spread from thence over 
the whole of Germany. Numbers of persons 
in this country, and also in France, had become 
deeply impressed with the importance of salva¬ 
tion, and firmly persuaded of the necessity of 
something very different from the doctrines set 
forth by the Church of Rome. They seem to 
have sought the religion of the heart, the influ¬ 
ence of which is evident in the life. The extreme 
profligacy which prevailed among all ranks led 
them to think of separating themselves from the 
mass of the people. To the convents they could 
not look, for these were more corrupt than the 
world at large. They therefore formed them¬ 
selves into free communities, for the purpose of 
advancing personal piety, of aiding one another 
in their spiritual concerns, and of promoting the 
advantage of others. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 90 

They appear to have originated with an 
eminent man, named Gerhard Groot, who was 
applied to by some of the scholars of a cele¬ 
brated school for instruction in theology. He 
promptly rendered them his aid, gave them 
access to his library, and frequently joined 
them in the perusal of good books. A large 
influx of scholars and proteges now took place, 
and he made rules for their guidance and disci¬ 
pline. One of them, as he was cop} T ing, said 
to Gerhard, “ Dear minister, what harm would 
there be if I and those of my friends who are 
transcribing with me were to lay by our weekly 
earnings, and have all things in common ?” 
“All things in one?” replied Gerhard, “ why it 
would raise the begging friars, and they would 
oppose it with all their might.” “ Well but, 
dear minister,” rejoined the young man, “ let us 
try at any rate. Perhaps God may cause some 
good to come of it.” “Well, then,” said he, 
“ in God’s name begin, and I will be your pro¬ 
tector against all your enemies.” 

The communities that thus arose and extended 
themselves had little or nothing in common with 
the regular inmates of convents. The brethren 
had no necessary connection with the priest¬ 
hood, and were seldom ordained. It does not 
appear that they had any vows of celibacy. A 


100 INCIDENTS OF T1IE REFORMATION. 

succession of such free fellowships may be traced 
through the whole of the middle ages, in forms 
more or less definite, and with some variety, 
both of rule and devotion, but all agreeing in 
their general design. Extreme simplicity 
marked them all. The members of these insti¬ 
tutions lived for the most part in separate hou¬ 
ses, though generally near to each other. They 
followed with diligence and self-denial some 
worldly occupation, which was commonly of an 
humble character; but this was subordinate to 
acts of piety and Christian kindness. The relief 
of the poor and the care of the sick, so fre¬ 
quently neglected by the multitude, received 
from them a constant attention. 

Some system appears to have been adopted 
in fulfilling these labors of love. Those of 
Antwerp, for example, especially devoted them¬ 
selves to persons afflicted with contagious dis¬ 
eases, to those who were dying, and to the 
offering of the last attentions to the dead. Oth¬ 
ers took charge of different departments of be¬ 
nevolent labor. These acts could not fail to 
awaken observation. The Brothers rose high in 
the esteem of the people of the countries they 
inhabited. They were invited by the corporate 
bodies of many cities to reside among them. 
Princes did them honor. Even popes deigned 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 101 

to certify that they were free from heresy. At 
the same time, they had bitter and implacable 
enemies in the mendicant friars and inquisitors, 
who sometimes succeeded in stirring up perse¬ 
cution against them. 

O 

It must also be admitted that these societies 
did not always preserve themselves from re¬ 
proach. Their contemplative character ex¬ 
posed them to delusions of the imagination, and, 
on some occasions, they united themselves with 
those who entertained erroneous opinions. A 
conviction of the necessity of reformation 
accordingly arose, and the result was exceed¬ 
ingly beneficial. They labored to make their 
example tell on those around, by reading to 
them out of the Scriptures, exhorting them as 
they had opportunity, instructing the young, 
and multiplying copies, by transcription, of the 
word of God. 

Whenever one of these institutions was estab¬ 
lished, a numerous circle of scholars was col¬ 
lected. They were attracted by the library, 
which the diligence of the Brethren in trans¬ 
cribing supplied, and to which the rules of the 
establishment gave free access. The inmates 
were expected to render assistance to any of 
the pupils who appeared to them in any diffi¬ 
culty, to encourage their further progress, and 


102 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

to diffuse knowledge in the village or city where 
they dwelt, by all the means in their power. 
The inhabitants of the Low Countries had, in 
consequence, far more instruction than those of 
any other. In the city of Amersfort the know¬ 
ledge of Latin became so general, that the poor¬ 
est artisans understood and spoke it, and the 
higher orders of the city were all Greek scho¬ 
lars. With the Brethren of these houses ori¬ 
ginated the Biblical theology and the classical 
learning of Germany. From their schools went 
out those men, who, as theologians and scho¬ 
lars, prepared a whole generation for the 
influence of Luther. 

In the mean time, there were other men, who, 
from a somewhat different point of view, saw 
the alarming degeneracy of the Church, and 
who raised a voice, sometimes of lamentation, 
and sometimes of indignant rebuke. Of this 
class was Gregory of Heimburg, a distinguished 
scholar and statesman, who was active at the 
council of Basle, and was an influential member 
of almost every German diet. He well knew, 
as he said, “ that it was more perilous to dispute 
the power of the pope, than to dispute the 
power of God.” 

Still he fearlessly spoke out in loud tones of 
remonstrance: “ While the pontiff professes 


/ 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 103 

to be invested with plenitude of the-power of 
Christ, he knows from Christ’s own word that 
this pretension is false. Christ did not give his 
disciples secular power, but taught them ex¬ 
pressly that his kingdom was not of this world. 
He himself would not be an earthly king, but 
was subject to rulers, as were also his apostles, 
both in principle and practice. For three hun¬ 
dred years nothing was known of the papal su¬ 
premacy. The Roman bishops were called, not 
to dominion, but to martyrdom. They gloried, 
not in the purple, in milk-colored horses, in 
riches, splendor, and power, but in being able 
to say, ‘ So we have forsaken all, and followed 
thee.’ ” Such was the tenor of his language. 

While Heimburg was thus exposing the 
arrogant pretensions of the Romish bishop, call¬ 
ing upon the German nation “to arise and 
shake themselves from the dust, and break the 
yoke that had been laid upon their necks,” Ja¬ 
cob of Ji'iterbock, a native of the very place 
where Tetzel, one hundred and thirty-two 
years afterward, preached indulgences, was 
publishing his views of the Church, and his 
doubts as to whether it was not already corrupt 
beyond the power of recovery. “ If a reforma¬ 
tion be possible,” said he, ** it must be effected 
either by the direct power of God, or through 


104 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

the agency of man. The former is possible, 
indeed, but it is not the ordinary method of 
Providence. It will not be accomplished by 
any one man, for many have attempted it and 
failed of success. The papal court itself stands 
in greatest need of reformation, as all the recent 
councils have declared. If the pope cannot 
purify his own court, how can he reform the 
Church ?” 

Another important character appears in Ruck- 
rath, or John of Wessalia, a small town of 
Wessel, on the Rhine, between Mayence and 
Coblentz. He was professor of theology in 
Erfurt, and afterwards a distinguished preacher 
at Worms. About the year 1450, while at 
Erfurt, he wrote a treatise against indulgences, 
which began thus: “We read, in the four 
Gospels, the discourses of our Lord; in these 
are contained the mysteries of salvation; but 
we find there nothing about indulgences. Next, 
the apostles preached, and wrote Epistles to the 
Churches ; neither in these is any mention made 
of indulgences. Then we have the works of Gre¬ 
gory Nazianzen, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom, 
Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, and yet they 
say nothing of indulgences.” In his elaborate 
discussions, he completely overthrew the system 
proposed and defended by Albertus Magnus, 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 105 

Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic writers. 
According to Ullmann, Wessel had proceeded 
further in his indulgences than Luther had 
done when he wrote on the same subject. His 
refutation of the doctrine was clearer, more 
comprehensive, and founded on a better under¬ 
standing of the whole subject. It aimed more 
at the foundation of the entire system than did 
the bold and powerful, but occasional and 
partial, assault of Luther. 

As preacher at Worms, Wessel found himself 
surrounded by worldly and corrupt priests, and 
placed under a bishop who was a better warrior 
than preacher. Still he was not diverted from 
his course. In a work which he published on 
the Office and Authority of Pastors, he openly 
declared that the world “ had fallen from a 
state of true piety into a kind of superstitious 
Judaism.” Wherever he looked, he beheld 
nothing but “an ostentatious display of works, a 
dead faith, and pharisaical pride; cold ceremo¬ 
nies and superstitions, not to say idolatry.” 
“The word of the Lord,” he continues, “is 
bound by human inventions, and cannot be freely 
proclaimed. A tyrannical power rises up 
against it on all sides; it is opposed by the 
teachings of the bishops, to say nothing of the 
legends of the saints, the fraud of indulgences, 


« 


106 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

and the fury of the monks, whom one must ex¬ 
alt to heaven if he would live comfortably.” 
“ But,” he says to his brethren, “ if called to 
preach the truth, do not stand in fear of the 
anathemas and curses thundered in papal bulls 
—which are but paper and lead—for they 
throw a cold and harmless bolt. For he who 
excommunicates you was long ago himself ex¬ 
communicated by the Supreme Judge.” With 
a spirit almost prophetic he continues : “ I see 
that our souls must waste away with spiritual 
famine, unless a star of hope shall arise. De¬ 
liver us, 0 God of Israel, from all these dis¬ 
tresses l” 

Wessel regarded the Scriptures as the only 
guide of the Christian. He refused to accept 
even the interpretation of them at the hands of 
the Church. The Bible must be its own inter¬ 
preter. The fundamental doctrine taught in 
the Scriptures he conceived to be that of salva¬ 
tion by grace. On the system of penances he 
remarks: “ When a man makes confession, 
severe penance is imposed upon him. He 
must perform a pilgrimage to Rome, or even 
farther; must fast, and repeat many prayers. 
Not so did Christ teach ; he simply said, ‘ Go 
and sin no more.’ ” He rejected entirely the 
authority of tradition. In his preaching at 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 107 

Worms, he used such language as the follow¬ 
ing : “ I will regard that, and that only, as sin, 
which the Scriptures declare to be so. I con¬ 
demn the pope, the Church, and the councils, 
and exalt Christ. To me their double-pointed 
mitres, their splendid infulas, the pearls and 
gold that adorn their feet, are as nothing. I can 
only smile at their high-sounding, heroical 
names, their miserable titles, and their lofty 
triumphs, all of which are signs of anything 
rather than a bishop.” 

When such things were justified on the 
ground of their antiquity, he tersely replied, 
“ The Babylonian empire is, therefore, not 
good, because it has stood some few centuries. 
We have then,” said he to his brethren, “ to 
demand of the pope and the priests, as succes¬ 
sors of Christ and the apostles, that they 
give us the word of God. If they will feed us 
with that, we would listen to them as we 
would to Christ himself; but if they will not, 
we will disregard them.” He complains loudly 
of the spiritual adulation of the times, of the 
“ blasphemous titles, such as ‘ the vicar of 
Christ,’ ‘ demi-god,’ ‘ the most divine,’ with 
which such blasphemous flatterers wag their 
tails before the pope, so that the ass in purple 
is pleased with himself, and thinks himself 


108 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

some great one.” Of the mummeries of public 
worship, he speaks with equal contempt: “ How 
changed is the appearance of the Church ! At 
present it is esteemed clerical to mutter prayers 
coldly with the lips, without understanding 
them. It is regarded as something grand when 
the deacons bray, ‘Gospel!’ ‘Epistle!’ Mut- 
terings and stentorian voices are empktyed in 
public worship without regard to its spirit¬ 
uality.” 

In 1479, Wessel was cited to appear before 
a spiritual court at Heidelberg, on abstract 
metaphysical questions, which had long divided 
two parties, called the Nominalists and the 
Realists. The first act of this judicial assem¬ 
blage was to sit down to a sumptuous dinner 
at the archbishop’s palace, of which judges, 
assessors, doctors, and witnesses against the 
accused, all partook. At its close, the vast hall 
of the Hotel de Ville of Mayence was crow'ded 
with inquisitors, rectors, and doctors of divinity, 
and the proceedings were opened with many 
formalities. The prisoner, when ordered to be 
brought to the bar, was an infirm old man, 
with a countenance unusually pallid, and a 
frame suffering from a long illness and a pro¬ 
tracted imprisonment. So weak, indeed, was 
he, that he could only sustain himself erectly 


INCIDENTS OF THE DEFORMATION. 109 

by the help of his staff, and of two friars who 
stood one at each arm. But for him there was 
no sympathy, no compassion in that court, 
and he perished in the dungeons of the Inqui¬ 
sition. 

A reference to another who rendered essential 
service to the work of the reformation must 
conclude this chapter. John Wessel was born 
in 1419 or 1420, at Groeningen, the capital of 
a province of that name in Holland. He 
was indebted for his education to one of the 
Brotherhoods of the time at Zwoll. The cele¬ 
brated Thomas a Kernpis was residing as a 
brother in the neighborhood, and it is probable 
that to him Wessel w r as specially indebted. 
The two, however, differed greatly in tempera¬ 
ment and character. The chief enjoyment of 
the former was experienced as he sat in his 
quiet cell, or walked in the garden of his con¬ 
vent, meditating on the love of God in Christ, or 
in labor to' enkindle a similar flame to that 
which glowed in his own bosom in the hearts of 
others. The latter was intent upon obtaining 
knowledge, and with this object he acquired 
many languages, investigated prevailing systems, 
opposed what he considered erroneous, and 
longed to remove the corruptions that were no¬ 
torious. A Kernpis was of a quiet, humble 


110 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

spirit—Wessel had the hold and dauntless heart 
of the reformer. 

Even in his youth he gave an earnest of his 
future character. While attending as an aco¬ 
lyte, or altar-boy, one of the usual services to 
the Virgin Mary in the Church, he is said to 
have asked the officiating priest, “ Father, why 
dost thou not lead me to Christ, who so kindly 
calls all who are weary and heavy laden to 
come to him ?” On another occasion, when 
exhorted to observe the fasts of the Church, he 
replied, “ Would God I were drunken instead 
with the love of God, and that I never fasted 
save from sin ?” His free opinions when at 
Zwoll could not escape notice; persecution 
arose in consequence, and he left the place, to 
which he was strongly attached. 

His subsequent career at the Universities of 
Paris and Cologne, interesting as it was, cannot 
now be described. Here he differed greatly 
from the multitude around. The earnestness 
and simplicity of his faith in the word of God 
had elevated him to a noble independence of all 
human authority, and to a vigor and freedom of 
thought that could not appear under other cir¬ 
cumstances. With the Scriptures in his hand, 
he disputed against tradition, doubted the power 
of the pope, opposed the doctrine of merit in 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. Ill 

the works of men, and maintained that there 
was no hope for the sinner save in the death of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

His Protestant tendencies showed themselves 
in scientific as well as ecclesiastical questions. 
To the assumption of mere authority he opposed 
his own independence and power of reasoning. 
It is related of Correggio that he said, on seeing 
a picture of Raphael’s, “ Raphael was an artist 
—so am Ibut this saying was originally 
Wessel’s. When the authority of Thomas 
Aquinas was quoted against him, he uniformly 
replied, “ Thomas was a doctor—very well, I am 
a doctor also. Thomas scarcely know Latin, 
and knew no other language—I know the three 
learned languages. Thomas had scarcely seen 
the ghost of Aristotle—I have read Aristotle in 
Greek.” That he could not act thus without 
creating- enemies must be obvious. There were 
professors and tutors of colleges who saw their 
influence over their pupils entirely disturbed by 
these means. Others felt the bitter defeats 
they had sustained in arguments Avith him. The 
monks hated him with more intensity than all, 
because he exposed unsparingly their supersti¬ 
tions and hypocrisy, and thus their craft was in 
great danger. 

Of his great simplicity the following is a 


112 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

striking instance. Pope Sixtus IV., immediately 
after his inauguration at Rome, told Wessel that 
he would grant him any request he should 
make. Wessel answered thus: “Holy father 
and kind patron, I will not press hard upon 
your holiness. You well know I never aimed 
at great things. But as you now sustain the 
character of the supreme pontiff and shepherd 
on earth, my request is, that you would so 
discharge the duties of your elevated situation, 
that your praise may correspond with your 
dignity, and that when the great Shepherd shall 
appear, whose first minister you are, he may 
say, ‘ Well done, good and faithful servant, enter 
into the joy of thy Lord and, moreover, that 
you may be able to say boldly, ‘ Lord, thou 
gavest me five talents ; behold, I have gained 
other five talents.’ ” 

The pope replied, “ That must be my care: 
but do you ask something for yourself.” “ Then,” 
rejoined Wessel, “ I beg you to give me out of 
the Vatican library a Greek Testament and a 
Hebrew Bible.” “ You shall have them,” said 
Sixtus: “ but, foolish man, why don’t you ask 
for a bishopric, or something of that sort ?” 
“For the best of reasons,” said Wessel, “be¬ 
cause I do not want such things.” 

On returning to his native country, he pur- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 113 

sued the course on which he had so disin¬ 
terestedly and devotedly entered. About this 
time the arraignment of Wessel took place. 

' Wessel heard of the trial of his friend, and of 
his sentence, but he had remained unaccused. 
The inquisitors were deterred from their purpose, 
partly by the great reputation of Wessel, but 
principally because Bishop David, of Burgundy, 
had bestowed on him especial favor. He was 
greatly celebrated as a physician, and had on 
one occasion relieved the bishop by ordering 
him a bath of new milk. A strong bond had 
subsisted between them in their mutual love of 
science and literature, and their full conviction 
of the necessity of a reformation. One proof of 
this was given by the bishop in his directing all 
the clergy in his diocese to be subjected to an 
open examination as to their literary qualities, 
the result of which was a melancholy exposure 
of ignorance and incapacity. That he had seri¬ 
ous faults is too evident, but of the last and 
w’orst period of his episcopate Wessel knew no¬ 
thing ; he died six years before his patron. 

Wessel continued his labors to the close of 
life for the benefit of others. His piety evinced 
itself in deep and unfeigned humility. Many 
passages might be extracted from his works, 

which express in the most touching terms the 

8 



114 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

deep self-abasement of his love to God. The 
following may serve as an example: “ What 
shall X return unto Him to whom I can return 
nothing that is not his, that I have not received 
from him, that he hath not given me? Woe is 
me! I dare not be unthankful, and yet it is 
impossible for me to make the least return. I 
and all that belong to me are thine, 0 Lord, 
whether I will or no. I have received them 
and possess them, though I cannot return them. 
It doth not become a saint to be unthankful; 
but how can I be thankful? Lord, I am infi¬ 
nitely bounden unto thee, yet in m} T self I am 
altogether poor, and can only thank thee by 
acknowledgment and confession, and rendering 
again unto thee wonder, love, praise, and sweet 
enjoyment of thy blessings.” 

The following beautiful passage also exhibits 
the same blessed frame of mind: “What can 
I give to Him who hath given me all things? 
The violet sheds its perfume on the gentle 
breath of spring that bids it blow, and the little 
insect sports, and rejoices, and shines in the 
sunbeam that calls it into existence, but what 
shall I render unto thee, 0 thou Sun of my 
soul ? Truly to give thee that which is mine is 
impossible, and even were it not so, it would 
be a gift utterly unworthy of thine acceptance. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 115 

Therefore, 0 Lord, I give thee of thine own. 
I give thee the heart which thy grace hath 
purified from the love of sin, and made thankful. 
I yield unto thee my soul and body’s powers; 
all I am and all I have, for they are thine, O 
Lord, yea, more thine than mine.” 

On the important subject of original sin, 
Wessel’s opinions were in unison with those of 
the Bible and of the reformers of the following 
century. In his scheme of Christianity man had 
altogether fallen from his original righteousness 
through Adam’s transgression. In one passage, 
after dilating on the helplessness and misery of 
man, and showing the inferiority of his unaided 
and untutored animal powers, even to those of 
the very beasts that perish, he goes on to 
ascribe all sorrow to sin, and all sin to the ab¬ 
sence of the love of God in the heart. In many 
other parts of his works the same doctrine of 
human depravity is clearly and forcibly ex- 

On God’s plan for man’s redemption from 
this deplorable state, Wessel is also in harmony 
with the reformers, and all those who at all 
times have sought instruction upon this point 
from the word of God alone. He says: “Christ 
the Son of God hath taken our nature upon 
him, and died for our redemption; and it is 



116 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

through faith in a crucified Saviour that man 
can hope for the pardon of his sin, and it is 
through the Holy Spirit of God showing Christ 
to the heart, and working faith in the heart, 
and through that alone, that makes him a par¬ 
taker of the benefits of his redemption. This 
work is altogether of God ; he works in the sin- 
ful heart of man to will and to do of his good 
pleasure.’ , 

We return to the narrative of his life, but only 
for the purpose of bringing it to a conclusion. 
He persevered to the end in the cause of holy 
usefulness already described. He attained to a 
good old age, notwithstanding the weakness of 
his constitution, and, probably through temper¬ 
ance and moderation, was enabled to pursue his 
studies and his labors in the education of youth 
to the last. 

At the commencement of WesseTs last illness, 
he complained to a friend that his mind was 
harassed with many anxieties and doubts re¬ 
garding the state of his soul, for that he was 
grievously tempted to deny the truth of Chris¬ 
tianity. This is conformable with the experience 
of many of God’s people under such circum¬ 
stances. To a mind constituted like his, power¬ 
ful, active, and searching, skepticism would be 
naturally a temptation. He had long doubted 


INCIDENTS OF THE DEFORMATION. 117 

much of which all around him believed, and 
now the enemy of his soul took advantage of 
weakness, and made use of this his mental habit 
to attack the very citadel of the faith. But 
Wessel became strong in the Lord, and in the 
power of his might. He lifted the shield of 
faith to quench the fiery darts of the wicked 
one; he wielded the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the word of God, and the devil, thus resisted, 
soon fled from him. When his friend next visited 
him, his countenance, though already convulsed 
with the tremors which indicate the approach 
of death, was radiant with joy, and he said with 
a calm, clear voice, “ I thank God these wicked 
thoughts have all vanished, and I know nothing 
save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” These 
w'ere his last words. He died on the 4th of 

r" 

October, 1489, at the age of sixty-nine or 
seventy. 

He was buried with all ecclesiastical honors, 
in the choir of the convent church at Groningen, 
near the high altar. He was described in the 
annals of that church, and in those of his country, 
as an excellent teacher of theology, learned in 
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, well 
traveled, and familiar with all philosophy. But 
his eulogists knew not the one point that enrolled 
the name of Wessel in the annals of Europe. He 


118 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

was in God’s hands a peculiar and chosen instru¬ 
ment to prepare the way for Luther and the 
reformation. 

At this era, be it remarked, the Netherlands 
was one of the most flourishing countries of 
Europe. Its people were industrious and en¬ 
lightened, in consequence of their varied rela¬ 
tions with different parts of the world; they 
were full of courage, and enthusiastic in the 
cause of their liberties and privileges. The 
more southern part, overflowing with wealth 
from the perfection of its manufactures, gave 
way. But the northern provinces, resolved to 
lose everything rather than the Gospel of our 
Lord and Saviour, not only preserved their faith, 
but achieved their national independence. 

Meanwhile Poland seemed well prepared for 
reform. The Bohemian Christians had disposed 
it instrumentally to receive a new and mighty 
impulse. So early as 1500, the nobility of 
Great Poland had demanded that the cup 
should be given to the laity, by appealing to 
the practice of the primitive Church. It be¬ 
came a safe asylum for those driven by perse¬ 
cution from their own country. They bore with 
them “the truth as it is in Jesus,” and gladly 
was it embraced by many of the people among 
whom they sought refuge. But the time 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 119 

had now arrived for events of transcendent 
importance, the ultimate effects of which no 
human mind can calculate. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Luther discovers a Bible—His visit to Rome—State of the priests 
and people of that city—The duke George of Saxony, and his 
sons—Luther’s journey to Heidelberg—Tetzel’s sale of in¬ 
dulgences—Luther opposes him—The diet of Worms—Luther 
proceeds thither—His fidelity to the truth—Ilis arrest and im¬ 
prisonment at Wartburg. 

Luther was twenty years of age, and a student 
at the University of Erfurt, when he discovered 
in its library a copy of the Bible, which he had 
never before beheld, and the eager perusal of 
which cast the first rays of pure and inspired 
truth on his mind. 

Various circumstances were rendered sub- 
servient to the increase of the light thus re¬ 
ceived, and when lecturing at the University of 
Wittemberg, to which he had been appointed, 
he began his course by explaining the Psalmist, 
and thence passed on to expound the Epistle to 
the Romans. A new power now accompanied 
his devout and constant perusal of the inspired 
records. On one occasion, having reached the 
seventeenth verse of the first chapter, he was 



120 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

exceedingly struck by the passage, “ The just 
shall live by faith.” Here was the germ of his 
future career—the first step of his devoted labors ; 
often, in after years, did he imagine he heard 
the words repeated, “ The just shall live by 
faith.” 

The new method he now adopted of ex¬ 
pounding the Scriptures attracted a crowd of 
youthful students to the university. Even 
many professors attended, and among them 
Mellerstadt, the first rector of the university, 
who was frequently styled “The light of the 
world.” “This monk,” said he, “will put all 
the doctors to shame; lie will bring in a new 
doctrine, and reform the whole Church ; for he 
builds on the word of Christ, and no one in the 
world can resist or overthrow that word, even 
should he attack it with all the arms of philo¬ 
sophy.” 

Another important event in Luther's career 
was his visit to Rome. Much superstition still 
darkened his mind. It was manifest in his 
saying to himself, “ 0, how I regret that my 
father and mother are still alive! What plea¬ 
sure I should have in delivering them from the 
fire of purgatory by my masses, my prayers, 
and by so many other admirable works!” 

But what a painful discovery did he make 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 1*21 

of the state of the priesthood ! They laughed 
at his simplicity as he celebrated mass with 
reverence of spirit, and did not conceal their 
profaneness and even gross infidelity. While 
officiating one day, he found that the priests 
at an adjoining altar had repeated seven masses 
before he had finished one. “ Quick ! quick !” 
cried one of them, “ send our lady back to her 
Son!” At another time, when he had only 
reached the gospel, the priest at his side had 
finished the mass, and cried, “ Make haste! 
have done with it at once!” The impression 
was then made, to which he gave utterance 
many years after, “ The nearer we approach to 
Rome, the greater number of bad Christians we 
meet with.” 

A similar remark was made by Machiavel, one 
of the most celebrated and profound geniuses 
of Italy, who lived at Florence when Luther 
passed through it, on his way to Rome. Allud¬ 
ing to the papal system, he said, “ The greatest 
symptom of the approaching ruin of Christianity 
is, that the more people approach to its capital, 
the less they find of the Christian spirit. The 
scandalous examples and the crimes of the court 
of Rome are the cause of Italy losing all princi¬ 
ples of piety, and all religious feeling. We 
Italians owe it principally to the Church and the 


122 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

priests that we have become unbelieving repro¬ 
bates.”— Dissert, on the 1st Dec. of Livy. 

On the 18th of October, 1512, Luther was 
admitted as a licentiate in divinity, and took the 
following oath: “ I swear to defend the evan¬ 
gelical doctrine with all my might.” The fol¬ 
lowing day there was solemnly delivered to him, 
in the presence of a numerous assembly, the 
insignia of a doctor in theology. He was thus 
called on to consecrate himself to the study of 
' the Scriptures. He then made a vow, as he 
himself tells us, to his beloved Holy Scripture; 
he promised to preach it faithfully, to teach it 
purely, to study it all his life, and to defend it 
by his arguments and writings against all false 
doctors, so long as God should lend him his aid. 
This solemn oath was Luther’s calling as a re¬ 
former. Impressing on his conscience the sacred 
obligation to inquire freely into Christian truth, 
and to declare it boldly, this oath raised him 
above the narrow limits within which he would 
probably have been confined by his monastic 
vow. It is hardly possible in the present day 
to conceive the effect of admitting the simple 
principle, yet overlooked for ages, of the sole 
infallible authority of the word of God. It was 
the first and fundamental truth from which the 
reformation arose. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 


123 


A new authority now attended his preaching. 
All who loved the truth became inclined to the 
reformer. Of Luther, a contemporary thus 
spoke : “ Martin is of middle stature ; from con¬ 
stant study he is so thin in person that his bones 
may almost be counted; in the prime of life, 
and with a clear and sonorous voice. But his 
learning and acquaintance with the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures are incomparable, by which he seems to 
grasp the whole in his mind. Greek and He¬ 
brew he understands thoroughly, so that he can 
judge respecting the interpretation. He exhi¬ 
bits no paucity of manner, shows a great fecun¬ 
dity in the topics of discourse, and an ample flow 
of words. Some want of judiciousness may, 
perhaps, be perceived, in bringing the very 
points of the argument to bear upon his oppo¬ 
nent. In society he is friendly and polite, and 
devoid of stoical pride, and, in one Avoid, popular 
in his address. He is cheerful in conversation, 
and never loses the cheerful expression of his 
countenance, however severely he may be as¬ 
saulted, so that one cannot resist the impression 
that he has not commenced his arduous task 
Avithout the assistance of God.” 

To Luther’s ability as an expositor, Melanc- 
thon bears the following testimony: “ He so 
explained the Scriptures, that, in the judgment 


124 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

of all pious and enlightened men, it was as if a 
new light had arisen on the doctrine after a 
long and dark night. He pointed out the dif¬ 
ference between the law and the gospel. He 
refuted that error, then predominant in the 
Church and the schools, that men by their own 
works obtain remission of sins, and are made 
righteous before God by an external discipline. 
He thus brought back the hearts of men to the 
Son of God.”— Melancth. Vita Luth. 

In 1517, Luther entered into communication 
with duke George of Saxony. His house had, 
at that time, two princes, Ernest and Albert. 
The elector Frederick, son of Ernest, was at 
this period the head of one branch—the Ernest¬ 
ine ; and his cousin, duke George, the head of 
the other—the Albertine. Dresden and Leipsic 
were both situated in the States of this duke, 
whose residence was in the former of these 
cities. His mother was daughter of George 
Podiebrad, king of Bohemia. The long strug¬ 
gle maintained between that country and Rome, 
since the time of John Huss, had not been 
without influence on the prince of Saxony, and 
he had often manifested a desire for a reforma¬ 
tion. The priests said, “He has imbibed it 
with his mother’s milk ; he is by birth an enemy 
of the clergy.” In many ways he annoyed the 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 125 

bishops, canons, and monks; and his cousin, the 
elector Frederick, was compelled more than 
once to interfere in their behalf. It appeared 
as if duke George would be one of the warmest 
partisans of a reformation. 

It seemed, on the other hand, that Frederick 
would be found the most ardent champion of 
Rome. But the reverse actually occurred. 
The duke would have been delighted to humble 
the bishops, whose splendid retinue far sur¬ 
passed his own; but it was another thing to 
receive the humiliating truths of the gospel, 
which would lead to the conviction of his per¬ 
sonal sinfulness, and that he could be saved by 
grace alone. But when he saw another appear 
as a reformer, and that a simple monk, who 
gained numerous adherents, he became a vio¬ 
lent adversary of the reform which he had pre¬ 
viously appeared to favor. 

In July, 1517, as he wished for an eloquent 
and learned preacher, Luther was recommended, 
and he was consequently invited to preach at 
Dresden, in the castle chapel, on the feast of 
St. James the Elder. That sermon produced a 
varied and powerful effect. To some it proved 
a stumbling-block; others received the truth; 
and even the duke probably owed to it some 
advantage: he opposed the reformation during 


126 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

his life, but in death declared that his only hope 
was in the merits of Jesus Christ. 

As the order of Augustine monks was about 
to hold its first general chapter at Heidelberg, 
Luther was invited as one of its most distin¬ 
guished members. His friends feared that 
enmity had rendered his name odious in every 
place through which he had to pass; but con¬ 
sidering that it was a call of duty, he calmly set 
out on foot a journey of more than two hundred 
miles. 

A guide accompanied him part of the way, 
carrying his little baggage. At length he 
reached Wurzburg, where he dismissed his 
attendant, and proceeded in a carriage for two 
or three days, when he reached the little village 
of Neunlieim, situated amidst almond-trees and 
clustering vines, opposite the city of Heidel¬ 
berg, at the foot of what is called the “ Holy 
Mountain,” and watered by the brightly flowing 
Neckar. Not far from the hotel of the Rose, 
where an enchanting prospect is enjoyed of 
river, city, hill, and valley, on the road leading 
to Frankfort on the Maine, there still stands an 
old house, in which it is said he sought refuse 
for the night, unwilling, probably, to bring any 
of his friends in Heidelberg into difficulty or 
danger on his account. Here he would doubt- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 127 

less admire the plains of Saxony, the position 
of Heidelberg, placed at the junction of the two 
beautiful valleys of the Rhine and the Neckar. 
From thence he could even discover, far in the 
north-west, the towers of Worms, where he was 
hereafter to stand forth valiantly for the truth, 
in the midst of its enemies. 

Contrary to his expectations, he was received 
with great cordiality by the grand chamberlain 
of the palatinate ; who treated him most hospi¬ 
tably, and showed him all that was worthy of 
attention in the palace. But Luther felt that 
he had a great work to do; and that in a uni¬ 
versity which exercised immense influence over 
the west and south of Germany, it was desirable 
he should strike a blow which would tell 
throughout these regions. 

He therefore set about writing theses, which 
were attacked by five doctors; but his replies, 
full of the word of God, excited great admira¬ 
tion. It was not long before the youngest of 
his opponents was left alone in the field; but 
terrified by the bold propositions of the Saxon 
reformer, he exclaimed, “ If our peasants heard 
such things, they would stone you to death.” 
This assertion was received, however, with a 
general burst of laughter from the audience, 
which showed that there was “ a new lever ” 


128 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

at work, and that unspeakably great is the 
power of truth. 

It was from this controversy that the cele¬ 
brated Martin Bucer was brought to the know¬ 
ledge of the gospel. At that time chaplain to 
the elector palatine, his eloquent delivery, his 
pleasing manners, and the freedom with which 
he censured the prevailing vices, made him a 
distinguished preacher. No one hastened more 
eagerly than he to the hall of the convent, 
where the controversy was conducted, taking 
with him pens, ink, and paper, that he might 
accurately note what Luther advanced. But 
while he was copying the reformer’s words, 
the Holy Spirit was inscribing the great truths 
of Christianity, in indelible characters, on “ the 
fleshly tables of his heart,” and by his means 
the gospel was sounded forth. Bucer, with 
two others, Brentz and Snepf, became shining 
lights in prominent places, and took part in 
many of the debates to which the Reformation 
gave rise. Strasburg, and subsequently even 
England, owed a purer knowledge of the truth 
to the labors of Bucer. 

The people of Germany were soon after in a 
state of great excitement. A monk, named 
Tetzel, went from place to place, with a splendid 
retinue, selling indulgences, which he declared 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 129 

to be “ the most precious and noble of God’s 
gifts.” Pointing from his pulpit to a red cross 
that was roared, he profanely declared that it 
had as much efficacy as the very cross of Christ. 
“Come,” he said, “and I will give you letters, 
all properly sealed, by which even the sins you 
intend to commit may be pardoned. There is 
no sin so groat, that an indulgence cannot 
remit it; and even if any one (which is 
doubtless impossible) had offered violence to 
the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God, let 
him pay—only let him pay well, and all will 
be forgiven him.” Crowds gathered about this 
impious pretender; men, woman, and children, 
and even *the poor who lived on alms—all found 
money. 

In the course of his journeys he came to 
Wittemberg, and Luther immediately attacked 
Tetzel and his doctrines. A controversy arose 
between them ; but as the enormous evil still 
continued, Luther proceeded to a more deter¬ 
mined act. On the evening of the feast of All 
Saints, when multitudes were flocking to the 
church, to do homage to the relics there 
exposed to view, he boldly placed on the doors 
of the chapel and castle of Wittemberg ninety- 
five propositions, in which he denounced the 
doctrine of indulgences. Within a month they 

9 


130 INCIDENTS OF T1IE REFORMATION. 

were announced throughout Christendom. Writ¬ 
ten in Latin, they were quickly translated into 
German, Dutch, and Spanish, and were borne 
for sale even as far as Jerusalem. 

It should not be concealed that there was 
still much darkness in the mind of Luther. 
He said, “ I permit the publication of my 
propositions against indulgences for this reason, 
that the greatness of the success may be attri¬ 
buted to God, and that I mav not be exalted in 
mine own eyes. For, by these propositions, it 
will appear how weak and contemptible I was, 
and in how fluctuating a state of mind, when I 
began this business. I found myself in it alone, 
and, as it were, taken by surprise. And when 
it became impossible for me to retreat, I made 
many concessions to the pope; not, however, 
in many important points; but, certainly, at 
that time, I adored him in earnest.” 

Again, he remarked : “ When I began the 
affair of indulgences I was a monk, and a most 
mad Papist. So intoxicated was I, and drenched 
in papal dogmas, that I should have been most 
ready at all times to murder, or assist others 
in murdering, any persons who should have 
uttered a syllable against the duty of obedience 
to the pope. I was a complete Saul, and there 
are many such yet. ... I was always a sin- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 131 

cere believer; I was always earnest in defend¬ 
ing the doctrines I professed ; I went seriously 
to work, as one who had a horrible dread of the 
day of judgment, and who, from his inmost 
soul, was anxious for salvation. In the year 
1517, when I was a young preacher, and dis¬ 
suaded the people from purchasing indulgences, 
telling them they might employ their time 
much better than in listening to the greedy 
proclamation of a scandalous article of sale, I 
felt I should have the pope on my side, for he 
himself, in his public decrees, had condemned the 
excesses of his agents in that business. My 
next step was to complain to my own ordinary, 
and also to the archbishop of Mentz; but I 
knew not at that time that half the money 
went to that prelate, and the other half to the 
pope. The remonstrances of a low, mean, poor 
brother in Christ had no weight. Thus despised, 
I published a brief account of the dispute, along 
with a sermon, in the German language, on the 
subject of indulgences ; and very soon after, I 
published also explanations of my sentiments, 
in which, for the honor of the pope, I con¬ 
tended that the indulgences were not entirely 
to be condemned, but that real works of charity 
were of far more consequence. This was to set 
the world on fire, and disturb the whole order 


132 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

of the universe. At once, and against me single, 
the whole popedom arose.” 

On January 6th, 1521, a splendid assembly 
was held at Worms, a city of Germany, on the 
west bank of the Rhine ; then a place of import¬ 
ance, but now much decayed, and surrounded 
by dismantled and ruined walls. This gathering 
took place in consequence of the plague prevail¬ 
ing at Nuremberg. The pope’s nuncio, Alean- 
der, implored the diet, urging many false charges, 
accompanied by much foul abuse, to take deter¬ 
mined measures against Luther. “ 0 !” said 
he, turning to Charles, “ I beseech your im¬ 
perial majesty not to do that which could 
only reflect dishonor upon your name. Dis¬ 
charge the duty which properly devolves upon 
you. Let Luther’s doctrines be proscribed by 
your authority throughout the empire; let*his 
writings be everywhere committed to the flames. 
Shrink not from the path of justice. There is 
enough in the errors of Luther to warrant the 
burning of a hundred thousand heretics. If 
the ax be not laid to the root of this venomous 
plant—if the death-blow be not dealt against it 
—then I behold it covering Christ’s heritage 
with its branches, changing the vineyard of the 
Lord into a howling wilderness, converting God’s 
kingdom into a haunt of wild beasts, and plung- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 133 

ing Germany into the same wretched condition 
of barbarism and desolation to which Asia has 
been reduced by the superstition of Mohammed.” 

A strong sensation was made by an oration 
which lasted for three hours. But in a few 
days it had passed away. For the sacrifice of 
Luther the majority of the princes were ready, 
but for the suppression of existing grievances 
they were not prepared. What these were is 
manifest from the address of duke George of 
Saxony: “The diet,” said he, “must not lose 
sight of the grievances for which it has to claim 
redress from the court of Home. How nume¬ 
rous are the abuses that have crept into our domi¬ 
nions ! The annates, which the emperor granted 
of his free will for the good of religion, are now 
exacted as a due; the Roman courtiers daily 
invent new regulations to favor the monopoly, 
by the sale, the leasing out of ecclesiastical 
benefices; a scandalous toleration is granted to 
rich offenders, while the poor are severely 
punished ; the popes are continually bestowing 
reversions and rent-charges on the officers of 
their palace, to the prejudice of those to whom 
the benefices rightly belong; the abbeys and 
convents of Rome are given in commendam to 
cardinals, bishops, and prelates, who apply their 
revenues to their own use, so that in many 


134 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORM ATT O N. 

convents, where there ought to be twenty or 
thirty monks, not one is to be found ; stations 
are multiplied to excess; shops for indulgences 
are opened in every street and square of our 
cities, to meet all this outlay of money, squeez¬ 
ing and draining the last coin out of the poor 
man’s purse; indulgences, which ought to be 
granted only with a view to the salvation of 
souls, are sold for a price ; the officials of the 
bishops oppress men of low degree, but never 
rebuke ecclesiastics who are guilty of crimes—• 
these are but a few of the abuses which cry out 
on Rome for redress. All shame is laid aside, 
and one object alone incessantly pursued— 
money ! evermore money !—so that the very 
men whose duty it is to disseminate the truth 
are engaged in nothing but the propagation of 
falsehood, and yet they are not merely tolerated 
but rewarded, because the more they lie, the 
larger are their gains. This is the foul source 
from which so many corrupted streams flow out 
on every side. Profligacy and avarice go hand 
in hand. 0! it is the scandal occasioned by 
the clergy that plunges so many poor souls into 
everlasting perdition. A thorough reform must 
be effected. To accomplish that reform a 
general council must be assembled. Where¬ 
fore, most excellent princes and lords, I respect- 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 135 


fully beseech you to give this matter your 
immediate attention.” Duke George then pre¬ 
sented a written catalogue of the grievances he 
had enumerated. 

Much of the effect produced by this address 
was owing to the notorious opposition of the 
duke to Luther. Other grievances were now 
urged. A list of them was presented to the 
emperor, who was thus addressed by the depu¬ 
tation who presented it: “ What a loss of 

Christian souls, what injustice, what extortion, 
are the daily fruits of those scandalous pre¬ 
tenses to which the spiritual head of Christen¬ 
dom affords his countenance! The ruin and 
dishonor of our nation must be averted. We, 
therefore, very humbly, but very urgently, 
beseech you to sanction a general reformation, to 
undertake the work, and to carry it through.” 

The assembly now demanded the appearance 
of Luther. Spalatin, obeying the order of the 
elector, sent him a note of the articles which he 
would be called upon to retract. “ Never fear,” 
was his reply, “ that I will retract a single 
syllable; since the only argument they have to 
urge against me is, that my writings are at 
variance with the observances of what they call 
the Church. If our emperor Charles sends for 
me only to retract, my answer will be, that I 


136 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

will remain here, and it will be all the same as 
though I had been at Worms, and returned 
again. But if the emperor chooses then to 
send for me to put me to death, as an enemy to 
the empire, I shall be ready to obey his sum¬ 
mons : for, by Christ’s help, I will never aban¬ 
don his word in the hour of battle. I know that 
these bloodthirsty men will never rest till they 
have taken my life. God grant that my death 
may be laid to the charge of the Papists alone t” 

He was now cited to Worms, and a safe-con¬ 
duct was granted him by the emperor, the 
elector of Saxony, dnke George, and the land¬ 
grave of Hesse, through whose territories he 
had to pass. While these things were occur¬ 
ring, the pope, who on the Thursday before 
Easter anathematizes all heretics, poured forth 
his curses on Luther. On hearing it, the 
reformer published his maledictions, with some 
pungent remarks, of which the following is a 
specimen:— 

The Pope. —“ Leo, bishop.” 

Luther.— “ Bishop! as much as a wolf is a 
shepherd ! for the bishop’s duty is to give godly 
exhortations, not to vomit forth imprecations 
and curses.” 

The Pope. —“ Servant of all the servants of 
God . . . 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 137 


Luther.— “ In the evening, when we are 
drunk ; but next morning we call ourselves Leo, 
lord of all lords.’’ 

The Pope.—“ The bishops of Rome, our pre¬ 
decessors, have been wont on this festival to 
employ the arms of justice . . . .” 

Lu tiier.—“ Which, according to your ac¬ 
count, are excommunication and anathema ; but, 
according to St. Paul, long-suffering, kindness, 
love unfeigned.” 2 Cor. vi, 6, 7. 

The Pope.— “According to the duty of the 
apostolic charge, and to maintain the purity of 
the Christian faith . . . .” 

Luther. —“ That is to say, the temporal pos¬ 
sessions of the pope.” 

The Pope.— “And the unity thereof, which 
consists in the union of the members with Christ 
their head, . . . and with his vicar . . . .” 

Luther.— “ For Christ is not sufficient: we 
have another besides.” 

The Pope. —“To preserve the holy com¬ 
munion of the faithful, we follow the ancient 
rule, and accordingly do excommunicate and 
curse, in the name of God Almighty, the 
Father . . .” 

Luther. —“ Of whom it is said, ‘ God sent 
not his Son into the world to condemn the 
world.’” John hi, 17. 


138 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

The Pope.— “ The Son and the Holy Ghost, 
—and by the authority of the apostles Peter 
and Paul, .... and by our own 

Luther.—“ Our own, says the ravenous wolf, 
as though God’s might were too weak without 
him!” 

The Pope. —“We curse ail heretics:—the 
Garasi, the Patarini, ‘the poor men’ of Lyons, 
the Arnoldists, the Speronists, the Passageni, 
the Wiclifites, the Hussites, the Fratricelli . . . .” 

Luther.— “ Because they have sought to 
possess themselves of the Holy Scriptures, and 
admonish the pope to be modest, and preach 
the word of God.” 

The Pope.— “And Martin Luther, recently 
condemned by us for a like heresy, together 
with all his adherents, and all persons, whoso¬ 
ever they may be, who aid or abet him.” 

Luther.— “ I thank thee, most gracious pon¬ 
tiff, that thou hast proclaimed me in company 
with all these Christians. It is an honor for 
me to have had my name proclaimed at 
Borne at the time of the festival, in so glorious 
a manner, and to have it circulated throughout 
the world with the names of all those humble 
confessors of Christ.” 

The Pope.— “ In like manner, we excommu¬ 
nicate and curse all pirates and corsairs . . . .” 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 139 

Luther.—“ And who is the greatest of all 
pirates and corsairs, if it be not he who takes 
souls captive, and binds them in chains, and 
delivers them to death ?” 

The Pope.—“ .... especially such as infest 
our seas . . . . ” 

Luther. —“ Our seas ! St. Peter our prede¬ 
cessor said, ‘ Silver and gold have I none.* 
Acts iii, 6. Jesus Christ said, ‘The kings of 
the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; but 
j~e shall not be so/ Luke xxii, 25, 26. But 
if a wagon laden with hay must give way to a 
drunken man, how much more fitting is it that 
Peter and Christ himself should give way to the 
pope !” 

The Pope.—“ In like manner we excommu¬ 
nicate and curse all those who falsify our bulls 
and letters apostolical . . . . ” 

Luther. —“But God’s letters—God’s Holy 
Scriptures—any one may condemn and burn 
them!” 

The PorE.—“ In like manner we excommu¬ 
nicate and curse all those who intercept any pro¬ 
visions on their passage to our city of Rome.” 

Lutiier. —“ He snarls and bites like a dog 
that is battling for his bone.” 

The Pope.—“ In like manner we condemn, 
and we curse, all those who withhold any privi- 


140 INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 


leges, dues, tithes, or revenues belonging to the 
clergy.” 

Luther. —“Forasmuch as Christ hath said, 

‘ If any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also,’ 
Matt, v, 40; and ye have now heard our com¬ 
mentary thereon . . . . ” 

The Pope. —“ Whatever be their station, 
dignity, order, authority, or rank, be they even 
bishops or kings.” 

Luther. —“ For there shall be false teachers 
among you, who shall * despise dominion, and 
speak evil of dignities,’ saith the Scripture.” 
Jude 8. 

The Pope.— “ In like manner we condemn 
and curse all who in any manner whatsoever 
shall molest the city of Rome, the kingdom of 
Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the 
patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany, the dutchy 
of Spoletto, the marquisate of Ancona; the Cam- 
pagna, the cities of Ferrara and Benevento, or 
any other city or territory belonging to the 
Church of Rome.” 

Luther. —“ 0 Peter, thou poor fisherman ! 
how hast thou become master of Rome, and so 
many kingdoms besides ? I bid thee. All hail, 
Peter, king of Sicily! . . . and fisherman of 
Bethsaida.” 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 141 

The Pope. —“We excommunicate and curse 
all chancellors, counselors, parliaments, pro¬ 
curators, governors, officials, bishops, and oth¬ 
ers, who shall resist any of our letters admoni¬ 
tory, permissive, prohibitory, mediatory, or 
executive.” 

Luther. —“ For the holy see seeks only to 
live in idleness, pomp, and debauchery—to rule 
and intimidate—to lie and deceive—to dishon¬ 
or and seduce, and commit all kinds of evil in 
peace and security . . . . ” “0 Lord, arise! it 

is not so with us as the Papists pretend ; thou 
hast not forsaken us, neither are thine eyes 
turned away from us.” 

On the arrival of the emperor’s summons, 
the friends of Luther were appalled, but he 
preserved his composure. Observing their 
distress, he said, “ The Papists have little desire 
to see me at Worms; but they long for my 
condemnation and death! No matter. Pray, 
not for me, but for the word of God. My blood 
will scarcely be cold before thousands and tens 
of thousands in every land will be made to 
answer for the shedding of it. The ‘ most 
holy ’ adversary of Christ, the father, and master, 
and chief of manslayers, is resolved that it shall 
be spilt. Amen! The will of God be done! 
Christ will give me his Spirit to overcome these 


142 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

ministers of Satan. I despise them while I live; 
I will triumph over them in death. They are 
striving hard at Worms to force me to recant. 
My recantation shall be this ; I said before that 
the pope was Christ’s vicar; now I say that he 
is the adversary of the Lord, and the apostle of 
the devil.” 

Proceeding on his way in a plain carriage, 
provided for him by the town council of Wit- 
temberg, and sometimes availing himself of a 
stoppage to preach the gospel, he was received 
everywhere by crowds of people. His progress 
resembled a triumph. One day, when he had 
entered into an inn, and the crowd was as usual 
pressing about him, an officer made his way 
through, and thus addressed him: “ Are you 
the man who has taken in hand to reform the 
Papacy? .... How can you expect to suc¬ 
ceed ?” “ Yes,” answered Luther, “ I am the 

man. I place my dependence on that almighty 
God whose word and commandment is before 
me.” The officer, deeply affected, gazed on him 
with a mild expression, and said, “ Dear friend, 
there is much in what you say; I am a servant 
of Charles, but your master is greater than mine. 
He will help and protect you.” 

On every opportunity he encouraged the 
young to study the Scriptures, and edified 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 143 


those of riper years. With great fervor of 
spirit he thus addressed the people; “You do 
not bend the knee before riches and honor, 
but you give them your heart, the noblest 
part of your nature. Alas! with your bodies 
you worship God, and with your spirits the 
creature. 

“ This idolatry pervades every man until he 
is freely recovered by the faith that is in Jesus 
Christ. 

“ And how is this recovery brought about ? 

“ In this way : Faith in Christ strips you of 
all confidence in your own wisdom, and right¬ 
eousness, and strength ; it teaches you, that if 
Christ had not died for you, and saved you by 
his death, neither you nor any created power 
could have done so. Then you begin to despise 
all these things which vou see to be unavailing. 

“Nothing remains but Jesus—Jesus only; 
Jesus, abundantly sufficient for your soul. 
Hoping nothing from all created things, you 
have no dependence save on Christ, from whom 
you look for all, and whom you love above all. 

“But Jesus is the one sole and true God. 
When you have him for your God, you have 
no other gods.” 

Just as he was approaching the city, a 
servant met him, and delivered him a messago 


144 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

from Spalatin: “ Abstain from entering Worms.” 
Luther, still unshaken, turned his eyes on the 
messenger, and answered, “ Go, tell your mas¬ 
ter, that though there should be as many devils 
at Worms as there are tiles on its house-tops, I 
would enter it.” On the morning of the 16th 
April, the city was within sight; some young 
nobles, with six mounted cavaliers, and other 
gentlemen of the prince’s retinue, a hundred in 
number, rode out to meet him, and surrounding 
his carriage, escorted him to the gates. At the 
same time, the populace were in motion, and 
two thousand persons accompanied him through 
the streets. 

On the 17th of April, he was summoned be¬ 
fore the assembly of the diet, for which he 
prepared himself with the following prayer: 
“Almighty God, how strange and inconsistent 
is this world! How do the people rage and 
clamor! how small and mean is man’s con¬ 
fidence in God! how weak and frail is the 
flesh, and how powerful and busy is the devil, 
by means of his apostles and worldly-wise 
ones ! How soon does the world withdraw its 
hand, and run headlong the broad and common 
road to hell, which is the sinner’s own place, 
regarding nothing but what is gorgeous and 
powerful, mighty and of great account! If I 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 145 

should turn my eyes on it, it were all over with 
me—the die were already cast, and the judg¬ 
ment pronounced. ' But ah! God, my God, do 
thou stand by me against all this world’s wis¬ 
dom and philosophy! Do thou it, for thou 
alone canst! And, indeed, it is not my cause, 
but thine ! In respect to myself I have nothing 
to do to the potentates of the earth, and would 
willingly have good and quiet days, and be left 
in peace. But thine, 0 Lord, is this righteous 
and everlasting cause. Stand by me, 0 thou 
faithful, eternal God ! I put not my trust in 
men. It is useless and vain, for all flesh is but 
a broken reed. 0 God ! O God ! hearest thou 
not, 0 my God ? Art thou dead ? No ! thou 
canst not die! Thou but hidest thyself. Hast 
thou not chosen me to this, as I feel and know ? 
for never in my life did I think to stand against 
such mighty men, neither have I planned it. 
Well, then, my God, help me in the name of thy 
dear Son, Jesus Christ, who shall be my shield 
and defense, yea, my strong tower, through the 
power and the might of the Holy Spirit! Lord, 
where tarriest thou ? Mv God, where art thou ? 
Come ! come ! I am ready to yield my life as 
a lamb to the slaughter. For the cause is 
righteous; it is thine also, and so I will not se- 

parate myself from thee to all eternity. So be 

10 


14(3 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

it then in thy name. The world may well leave 
my conscience free ; yet were it full of devils, 
and should my body, which is thy handiwork, 
be destroyed and hewn in pieces, still if thy 
word is with me, they can only kill the body ; 
the soul is thine, and will return to thee, to 
abide with thee forever. Amen! may God 
help me ! Amen !” 

Accompanied by the marshal of the empire 
and the imperial herald, he proceeded to the 
hall; but so great was the concourse of the 
people that they were compelled to avoid the 
usual way of approach, and to go thither 
through gardens and houses. Curiosity in¬ 
duced many to seek a glimpse of him, and 
some even ascended the roofs to gratify their 
desire. Not a few addressed him in the council- 
chamber with words of encouragement and 
comfort, and in reliance on God he advanced 
to his trial. On being asked if he acknow¬ 
ledged a heap of writings, the titles of which 
were mentioned, he replied in the affirmative. 
In answer to the second inquiry, if he recanted, 
he replied, “ As this is a question of faith, and 
the salvation of the soul, and concerns the 
word of God, which is the greatest treasure in 
heaven or on earth, and deserving of our high¬ 
est reverence, it would be presumptuous and 




INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 147 


dangerous for me to declare anything unad¬ 
visedly ; because I might easily, through indif¬ 
ference, assert as certain more than the case 
warrants, or less than it demands, either of 
which would draw on me the condemnation of 
Christ, when he says, ‘ Whosoever shall deny 
me before men, him will I also deny before my 
Father which is in heaven.’ Therefore I beseech 
your imperial majesty, with all due submission 
and humility, to grant me time for reflection, 
that I may, without disparagement to God’s 
word, or detriment to my own soul, rightly 
answ r er the questions laid before me.” This 
request was met by the reproving remark, that 
he had already sufficient time for reflection, yet 
the emperor granted him one day for considera¬ 
tion ; and Luther being dismissed, the assembly 
broke up. He was accompanied home amidst 
the plaudits of the multitude. 

On the following day, after various statements, 
he called upon all and every one present to con¬ 
vict him of error from the prophetical or gospel 
Scriptures; avowdng, if converted, his readiness 
to recant, and to cast his books into the fire. 
“ From all which I think it wfill be plain,” said 
he, “that I have sufficiently pondered, con¬ 
sidered, and weighed the danger of the appre¬ 
hended disunion, sedition, and revolt, arising to 


148 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

the world from my doctrine, of which I was 
yesterdajr so seriously and confidently reminded. 
In truth, it rejoices me to see divisions, discord, 
and variance, on account of the Divine word, for 
such is the course and issue it must have, as the 
Lord himself says, ‘ I am not come to bring 
peace, but a sword.’ ” He next warned them 
against the mischief which an inconsiderate or 
ungodly conduct in this affair might produce; 
adding, “ I say not, therefore, that my doctrine 
and instruction were needful for such great per¬ 
sonages, but that I neither could nor would 
withdraw my service from my German father- 
land ; and herewith commending myself most 
submissively to your imperial majesty and lord- 
ships, I humbly beseech that you will not suffer 
the bad opinion of my ill-wishers to calumniate 
me, and bring me into disgrace.” 

At the conclusion of his speech, he was re¬ 
quired to repeat in Latin what he had uttered in 
his own language; and though overcome with 
fatigue, he addressed the assembly with great 
vigor, and in a firm tone. His reply excited the 
greatest astonishment; even the emperor said, 
“ The monk spake with an intrepid heart and 
unshaken courage.” Luther was now reminded 
by the chancellor of Treves, that if he did not 
retract, he must be dealt with as an obstinate 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 149 

heretic: to which he replied, “ May God be my 
helper, for I can retract nothing!” Tims he 
pronounced his Amen to the doctrines he had 
proclaimed. Various means were now employed 
to shake the mind of Luther, but his resolution 
was undaunted; he declared that he would 
rather lose his life than give up the word of 
God. lie now received the order of the em¬ 
peror to quit Worms immediately, with the grant 
of twenty-one days to return, if he neither 
preached nor wrote during his journey to dis¬ 
turb the public peace. 

“ It was,” he says, “ a beautiful day when 
we departed from Worms. Firmly convinced 
of the truth of the opinions we had maintained, 
I felt no uneasiness—no fear. I knew that 
God, whose servant I am, would protect me 
from my enemies, while my friends who re¬ 
mained faithfully attached to me sang hymns 
of joy for our victory over the pope and his 
supporters. External nature seemed to invite 
us to happiness, and, by her sweet smiles, to 
promise us deliverance. The fields looked green, 
the trees were covered with verdure, the sun 
shone brilliantly in the firmament, and the birds 
would perch on the branches, and delight us 
with their warblings. One or two would com¬ 
mence singing, and then they would all at once, 


150 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

both old and young, join in full chorus, and so 
long: that it is marvelous how voice and breath 
can endure it. I wonder whether the pope and 
his cardinals at Rome would produce such noble 
and gallant attendants.” 

After Luther’s departure from Worms, lierce 
contentions prevailed in the diet, but ultimately 
the policy of Rome became ascendant. The 
edict now issued proscribed Luther and his ad¬ 
herents, condemned that they should be deliver¬ 
ed up to the authorities, and proclaimed relent¬ 
less hostility against the object for which he 
labored. At the same time, it was obvious, 
that to enforce it would produce a civil war in 
Germany; but even from this there was no 
shrinking. At the close of the diet, Aleander 
thus addressed his colleague: “ Well, Carac- 
cioli! if we have effected nothing very splendid 
at this diet, yet it is certain that by this edict 
we have turned the whole country into one 
great slaughter-house, in which the Germans, 
raging against their own entrails, will be speedily 
suffocated in their oavii blood !” 

After visiting his relations, Luther proceeded 
on his journey, in company with two of those 
who had accompanied him to Worms, and while 
pursuing it he was seized by masked horsemen, 
and placed on another horse. Off went the 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 151 

horsemen, riding first in one direction, and then 
in another, and having had the shoes on the 
horses’ feet reversed, they were, at length, sure 
that they had defied pursuit. Unaccustomed 
to riding, Luther was almost overcome with 
fatigue. The escort allowed him to have some 
water at a well, to which his name has since 
been given, and then, as the shades of evening- 
closed, they proceeded with greater speed. 
About midnight they arrived at the castle of 
Wartburg, near to Eisenach, and to it the re¬ 
former was committed as a prisoner. 

Information of his sudden and mysterious 
disappearance flashed like lightning through 
Germany; multitudes appeared interested in 
his fate. His relations and friends were filled 
with apprehension, and, amidst a great diversity 
of opinions, some parties reported that assassins 
had taken away his life. Priests were glad at 
their supposed release from his influence, but 
the people mourned the loss of their tried friend 
and teacher. “ Never again shall we behold 
him,” was their sorrowful declaration; “ never 
again shall we hear that bold man, whose voice 
stirred the depths of our hearts !” 

Worms was meanwhile the scene of extraor¬ 
dinary excitement. Remonstrances, loud and 
deep, were heard on all sides, from rich and 


152 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

poor; the noble and the cottager grieved over 
his loss, and determined to do their best to dis¬ 
cover his fate. Suspicion rested on Charles V., 
and the nuncios did not escape loud accusations. 
Luther’s devotedness to the cause he upheld, 
• and his firmness in the hour of severe trial, had 
produced the conviction, now rapidly extending, 
that he was no impostor. At Wittemberg his 
friends and colleagues were overcome with sad- 
ness; they thought their skillful and undaunted 
leader was taken from them. Their distress 
was, however, greatly relieved on hearing that 
he was living, though in close confinement. 

The followers of Luther, having no new 
scenes to absorb their attention, examined more 
closely his past life, and particularly his con¬ 
duct at Worms, where, opposed by his most 
determined and implacable enemies, he obtained 
so glorious a triumph. “ Has he not,” they 
asked, “ offered to retract, if refuted ?” “ No 

one has had the hardihood to undertake to re¬ 
fute him : does not that show that he has spoken 
the truth ?” 

Meanwhile the knight George, as Luther was 
called, was living in solitude. He was permitted 
to go at large in the fortress, but its limits were 
his. Yet his wishes were complied with, and 
his treatment was considerate. Still his heart 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 153 

was sometimes sorrowful, when he exclaimed, 
“ O, my friends, do you then forget to pray for 
me, that God can thus leave me to myself?” 

His time was well spent. “I am here,” he 
says, “ at once the idlest and busiest of mortals. 
I study Hebrew and Greek, and write without 
interruption.” The multitude of tracts following 
in rapid succession from his pen, displayed all 
his usual vigor. Discussions took place also 
between Luther and his friends as to monastic 
establishments. He saw now more clearly that 
they were opposed to the doctrines of free 
grace; as the monks considered virtue attach- 

O 7 

ing to their mode of life, and thus laid their 
hopes of salvation on a foundation of human 
merit. Convinced that the full glory of Christ 
was not given him, he exclaimed, immediately 
as he said this, “ Monkery must yield ; the doc¬ 
trine of Scripture is that of justification by faith 
alone.” 

Aware that he was a prisoner in the castle 
of Wartburg, his enemies considered his con¬ 
nection with the Reformation at an end. The 
purveyors of indulgences were assembled, and 
they were stimulated to renew their employ¬ 
ment. “ Do not fear,” it was said; “ we have 
silenced him: go, shear the flock in peace; the 
monk is in prison, under bolts and bars; and 


154 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

this time he will be clever, indeed, if he disturbs 
us at our work.” Again the churches of Halle 
sounded with the voice of the sellers of in¬ 
dulgences, and these were spread out to attract 
purchasers. But, to their dismay, he completed 
a tract, “Against the New Idol of Halle.” 

On hearing of his purpose, the elector said: 
“ I will not suffer Luther to write against the 
archbishop of Mentz, to the disturbance of the 
public tranquillity.” But the reformer was not 
to be intimidated: “ Truly,” said he, “ it is 
very fine to hear you say we ought not to dis¬ 
turb the public peace, when you permit the 
disturbance of the peace that is from God; it 
shall not be so.” He did, however, agree to 
delay the publication of his tract, and some of 
the severer passages were removed. A letter 
was, however, sent to the cardinal elector, 
threatening to attack the venders of indulgences 
by pen, if the proceeding were not stopped. He 
was terrified, and fourteen days had scarcely 
expired, when Luther received from him a 
letter, assuring him that he (the elector) took 
the letter in good part, and was so great and 
pious a Christian, that he should act as became 
one in such a case. 

Luther was attacked by violent illness, and 
he felt great anxiety for the cause of God. Still 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 155 

he sometimes called Wartburg his Patmos, at 
others his wilderness, and at others his region 
of birds. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Erasmus—Melanctlion, his learning and works—Luther’s return 
to Wittemberg—His translation of the New Testament— 
Ilis various writings—Wide diffusion of the works of the re¬ 
formers—Progress of the Reformation. 

Erasmus, a native of Rotterdam, had long dis¬ 
tinguished himself by scholarship. For some 
years he had been engaged in translating a neAv 
edition of the New Testament, and which, when 
completed, he presented to the almoner of 
Henry VII., being at that time in England. In 
1516, he received an invitation to France, from 
Francis I. In that year the New Testament, in 
Greek and Latin, with his notes, was published 
by him at Basle; the first entire version that 
was printed and published separately. His 
Latin translation is considered better than the 
Vulgate, and more comformable to the Greek 
text. According to Ernesti, his annotations 
prepared the way for all who have since excelled 
in interpreting the Scriptures, though from his 
io-norance of Hebrew he often errs. 

O 

Erasmus now attained to extraordinary emi- 



15G INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

nence. He corresponded with the most learned 
men of all countries. His opinions were re¬ 
garded with peculiar reverence. He did not 
escape, however, strong opposition. In the 
struggles which took place between the Re¬ 
formed and the Romanists, in 1518, he took a 
lively interest. He opposed the indulgences of 
pope Leo X., respected Luther for his magnani¬ 
mous opposition to their sale, and incurred, in 
consequence, the hatred of many by whom he 
was formerly esteemed. In 1519, Erasmus 
received from Melancthon a letter expressive of 
his approbation of the New Testament and 
paraphrases, and also of the good wishes of 
Luther. 

Erasmus would not fail highly to appreciate 
such a tribute from Melancthon, Some years 
before, he had thus written: “ What promise 
does not that youth, or boy, as we might almost 
term him, hold out! He is about equally 
eminent in his knowledge of Latin and Greek. 
What acuteness in argument I What purity 
and elegance of diction ! What manifold know¬ 
ledge ! What delicacy and extraordinary tender¬ 
ness of feeling!” 

Melancthon had found, also, another and a 
purer source of knowledge. His relation, 
Reuchlin, had given him not only a number of 


INCIDENTS OE THE REFORMATION. 157 

valuable books, but also a copy of the Bible. 
The Scriptures were to him the most precious 
treasure. With what love and delight did he 
expatiate over the fields of Divine truth, pluck¬ 
ing and gathering the fruits which Divine 
wisdom has here caused to grow ! “ In reading 
the Bible,” he says, “he was so constant, that 
nobody would believe the volume he always 
carried in his bosom was a sacred one, but 
rather that he was enamored of some profane 
author.” 

Through this steady and devout application 
to the sacred writings, his eyes were opened to 
the evils that prevailed. He heard one friar read 
from the pulpit a proposition of Aristotle, and 
another state in a sermon that the wooden shoe 
of the Franciscans was made of the tree of 
knowledge of paradise. His love for the truth 
and for free inquiry was much heightened by 
another circumstance. Reuchlin had been 
compelled, for his own justification, to prepare 
some papers, partly to be sent to the papal 
court, and partly to that of the emperor. 
Melancthon made, with his own hands, an 
elegant transcript of these, for the use of the 
author. This friendly service greatly contri¬ 
buted to enlighten his mind as to the state of 
the Church, and the demands of the age. Still 


158 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

more useful was the frequent personal inter¬ 
course which he now enjoyed with Reuehlin, 
who often rode from Stutgard to Tubingen, to 
spend several days with his young friend. 
Their love was like that of a father and a child. 
The enlightened and unprejudiced mind of the 
elder exerted a great and salutary influence on 
the susceptible heart of the younger. 

When Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, 
was in search of a competent teacher of the 
Greek language for the University of Wittem- 
berg, then newly founded, Reuehlin thus wrote : 
“ Melancthon will promote the honor, reputa¬ 
tion, and usefulness of the university; for I 
know no one among the Germans who sur- 
passes him, except Erasmus, who is a Hollander. 
He goes beyond us all in Latin.” Amply did 
he sustain this gloAving recommendation. “ As 
long as he lives,” said Luther, “ I desire no 
other teacher of Greek. He has excited in all 
theologians, the highest as well as the lowest, a 
zeal for the study of Greek.” 

With great enthusiasm he sought to supply, 
in a short time, his defective knowledge of 
Hebrew. His zeal for theological studies was 
much augmented by a disputation at Leipsic, 
in the summer of 1519, when he became more 
deeply convinced than before of the contrariety 


INCIDENTS OF TIIE REFORMATION. 


159 


of the prevailing Church doctrines to Divine 
truth. After much effort, Luther prevailed on 
the elector to appoint Melancthon professor of 
theology. What a blessing this arrangement 
became, in the good providence of God, it would 
be difficult to describe. Students flocked to his 
lectures, not only from Germany, but from 
almost all the countries of Europe. Multitudes, 
attracted by the splendor of his name, repaired 
to him from England, France, Hungary, Tran¬ 
sylvania, Poland, Bohemia, from Italy itself, 
and even from Greece. 

“ It was of inestimable value to Melancthon,” 
says Ranke, “ that he could here devote himself 
to subjects which filled his whole soul, and that 
he now found the substance of those forms to 
which his attention had been hitherto princi¬ 
pally directed. He embraced with enthusiasm 
the theological views of Luther, and, above all, 
his profound exposition of the doctrine of justi¬ 
fication. But he was not formed to receive 
these opinions passive^. He was one of those 
extraordinary spirits, appearing at rare in¬ 
tervals, who attain to a full possession and use 
of their powers at an early period of life. 
When he went to Wittemberg, he was but just 
twenty-one. With the precision that solid phi¬ 
lological studies seldom fail to impart, with the 


160 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

nice instinct natural to the frame of his mind, 
he seized the theological element which was 
offered to his grasp.” 

A still more extensive sphere of influence 
was opened to Melancthon, by the publication 
of a multitude of theological writings. Some 
of these were issued by Luther, who had heard 
their substance in the lecture-room, without 
the knowledge of the author. Thus, of the 
Expositions of the Epistles to the Romans and 
Corinthians, he says: “ It is I who publish this 
commentary of yours, and I send yourself to 
you. If you are not satisfied with yourself, 
you do right; it is enough that you please us. 
Yours is the fault, if there be any. Why did 
you not publish them yourself? Why did you 
let me ask, command, and urge you to publish 
to no purpose ?” 

Melancthon was the first who prepared a 
manual or system of religious doctrines. The 
origin of this work was entirely accidental. In 
his lectures on the Epistle to the Romans, he 
had drawn up, for the benefit of his hearers, a 
summary of the most important doctrines treated 
of by the Apostle. This little abstract was printed 
by some of his pupils, without his knowledge, 
and as soon as he perceived its defects, he 
determined to publish it in an enlarged and 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 161 

complete form. Thus originated his “ Loci 
Communes," or Common Places, first printed in 
Wittemberg, in 1521. Wherever in Germany 
any desire had been awakened for the reforma* 
tion of the Church, this volume received a warm 
welcome. 

Luther, especially, was full of joy: “ Who¬ 
ever,” he exclaimed, “ would now become a 
theologian has great advantages, for, in the first 
place, he has the Bible, which is now so clear 
that he can understand it without difficulty. 
Then let him read Philip’s Loci Communes, so 
that he will have the whole of it by heart. 
When he has these two things, he is a theolo¬ 
gian whom neither the devil nor any heretic 
can puli down; and the whole of theology stands 
open before him, so that he can peruse for 
edification what he will. Then, if he pleases, 
he may read Philip’s Commentary on Romans, 
and may subjoin my commentaries on Gala¬ 
tians and Deuteronomy, and thus gain a 
copious stock of words. You will find none of 
all his books where the sum of religion is ex¬ 
hibited in finer proportions than in the Loci 
Communes. Read all the fathers and senten- 
tiaries, you will find nothing to be compared 
with it. There is no better book after the 
Bible than this.” 


11 


162 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

The first edition was immediately exhausted , 1 
and two more editions were demanded in the 
same year. In five years, the work had been 
printed fifteen times in Latin, and ten in Ger¬ 
man, with but few important alterations. In 
its revised forms, at subsequent periods, it was 
equally, if not still more, successful. 

The publication of the work was of inesti¬ 
mable value to the cause of the gospel. The 
genius of Melancthon was admired in the 
courts, the universities, and the churches, while 
his character excited affection. Even those 
who did not know the author were attracted 
by his work; their prejudices fell to the ground ; 
they received its truths. The rudeness and 
sometimes the violence of Luther’s language 
had repulsed many; but here was a man, who, 
with elegance of style, and exquisite taste, set 
forth the great things of God. 

One special charm of the works of Melanc¬ 
thon was their perspicuity. “ It is in vain,” 
he remarks, “to expend the utmost pains in 
science, if we never attain the power clearly to 
present the thoughts of the soul.” It was 
this, therefore, he earnestly sought. “ I love,” 
he says, “ the exact expression, and I call out 
aloud in the school daily, that every one should 
take pains to select appropriate language, d. 



INCIDENTS Of THE REFORMATION. 163 

■wish that none would ever follow me when 
I make use of terms that are not pertinent; I 
am a very severe judge to myself, and I com* 
mend others who employ a vigorous censor¬ 
ship.” Thus he gained a clear, natural, and 
popular method of address, alike intelligible to 
the learned and the unlearned. 

At Wittemberg, much had been effected 
during the absence of Luther. It was now 
determined that principles hitherto avowed 
and defended should be carried into practical 
operation. Accordingly, thirteen monks left 
the Augustinian convent, and renounced their 
vows; Feldkirchen, one of Luther’s earliest 
associates, married, and several other priests 
followed his example. As the cup in the 
Lord’s supper had been denied to the laity, 
it was now restored ; the people receiving the 
wine as well as the bread in the celebration of 
that ordinance on Christmas-day, 1521, and 
the German language was used instead of the 
Latin. These were the beginnings of an actual 
reformation. 

Of all the efforts of Luther, the most import¬ 
ant and useful was his translation of the Scrip¬ 
tures. This great work was begun during his 
concealment in the castle of Wartburg. The 
New Testament was finished shortly after his 


164 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

return to Wittemberg; and having received 
the critical revision of his friend Melancthon, 
was published in September, 1522, and obtained 
forthwith an immense circulation. 

Several other versions had been previously 
printed without exciting much attention, and 
the numbers issued had been very small. But 
the people of Germany were now prepared to 
receive and value the precious gift. Informa¬ 
tion had been widely diffused, and holy zeal 
awakened. 

Luther and his associates had dealt heavy 
blows at anti-Christ, with weapons fetched 
from the armory of God. Now the heavenly 
magazine itself was opened, and the assault 
became fiercer and more effective. Nothing 
tended so powerfully to establish and extend 
the Reformation as the publication of the German 
New Testament. 

Not only were the Scriptures previously 
denied to the people placed in their hands, but 
their examination of the contents of the Bible 
for themselves was maintained in opposition to 
the claim of the Romish Church to be the only 
authoritative interpreter. “ The right,” said 
Luther, “of inquiring and judging concerning 
matters of faith belongs to Christians, all and 
individually; and so entirely belongs to them, 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 165 

that cursed be he who would curtail this 
right by a single hair’s-breadth. Christ has 
established it by many infallible declarations. 
Then not only is it their right, but their duty, 
to form such judgments; and this authority 
easily overbalances the opinions of all the 
pontiffs, of all the fathers, the councils, the 
schools, which confine that right to the bishops 
and ministers, and impiously and sacrilegiously 
ravish it from the people, who are in the truth, 
the Church.” 

Eventful were the times now passing. Against 
Luther the powers of this world appeared to be 
arrayed. The pope had excommunicated all 
his adherents ; the imperial diet had condemned 
his doctrines; princes were laboring to suppress 
them throughout the Germanic States; the 
ministers of Rome were assailing them with 
violent invectives ; and the other States of Chris¬ 
tendom were calling on Germany to put down 
an enemy, whose hostile efforts they even 
dreaded at a distance. But the cause of God 
was making progress, as if the declaration were 
being verified, “ He that sitteth in the heavens 
shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them (his 
enemies) in derision.” 

Among the first to burst their bonds, and to 
propagate the new doctrine through the churches 


1C6 INCIDENTS OF THE DEFORMATION. 

of the west, were the monastic orders. In some 
instances, aged men, who had maintained the 
light of truth amidst prevailing and intense 
darkness, now entreated that God would permit 
them to depart in peace, since their eyes had 
seen his salvation. In others, young men 
received the doctrines of Luther with the 
greatest eagerness. Numerous convents of the 
Augustinians turned to the Saviour, and provo¬ 
ked by their conduct the resentment of Rome. 
Others joined in the movement. In most of 
the cloisters, the most intelligent and pious of 
the monks espoused the truth, regardless of the 
consequences. Even the heads of convents 
yielded to the power that was in operation; 
some of them declaring, that if a monk felt his 
conscience burdened by his vows, so far from 
retaining him in their convents, they would take 
him on their shoulders to carry him out of 
them. Everywhere, indeed, throughout Ger¬ 
many, monks were seen from various causes 
—but the majority from the conviction that 
the monastic life was opposed to the will of 
God—leaving the cloisters in which they had 
purposed to spend the residue of their days; 
and priests in still greater numbers proclaimed 
the new doctrine. 

In cities, towns, and even villages, Luther’s 




INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 16*7 

works were read. Struck by their contents, 
some took up the Scriptures to settle their 
doubts, and were astonished at the difference 
between true Christianity and the system they 
maintained. It was for them to decide between 
that system and the truth, and they preferred 
the latter. At this crisis, perhaps, a preacher 
of the gospel arrived; it might be a priest or 
a monk, but he described with eloquence and 
elfect the redemption of man through the blood 
of Christ, and the vanity of human works as 
the ground of acceptance before God. Fuel 
was thus added to the flame that had been 
kindled, and intensely did it continue to burn. 

The clergy, and frequently the magistrates, 
put forth all their power to arrest the work of 
renovation, but it was that of Him who says, 
“I Avill work, and who shall let it?” Men 
gave in their adherence to the gospel, loving not 
their lives even to the death. Sometimes, in¬ 
censed at long-practiced delusions, they com¬ 
pelled the priests to withdraw; at others, these 
deceivers retired, surmising that the staff of 
their power was broken. 

In other instances, the friends of the truth 
became wanderers from persecution. But this 
proved for the furtherance of the gospel. They 
talked of it to those who knew it not, read to 


168 INCIDENTS OF THE DEFORMATION. 

them the Scriptures, and preached in the 
church if they could obtain it; if not, on a hill, 
in a cemetery, a market-place, or beneath the 
shadow of a tree. At Gosslar, a student from 
Wittemberg taught the new doctrine in a plain 
planted with lindens, whence evangelical Chris¬ 
tians were called “The Linden Brethren.” 

Even simple Christians, with the New' Testa¬ 
ment in their hands, undertook to defend the 
truth. The Romanists were affrighted at that 
book; they had been taught that it should be 
studied only by priests and monks. These, 
therefore, had now to advance; but to the de¬ 
clarations of Scripture they knew not how to 
reply. “Unfortunately ,' 5 says Cochlseus, (we 
should rather say happily,) “ Luther had per¬ 
suaded his partisans that no credence should be 
given except to the oracles of the sacred books.” 
The priest and monk, therefore, often retired 
discomfited in the struggle. 

DO 

Singular are the fruits of zeal in extraordi- 
nary times. At Ingoldsfcadt, a young weaver 
read Luther's works to the assembled crowd, 
under the eye of Dr. Eck, a bitter antagonist 
of the reformer. In the same city, the univer¬ 
sity having sought to compel a pupil of Melanc- 
thon to retract, a woman, Argula von Staufen, 
undertook his defense, and challenged the 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 169 

doctors to dispute with her. She would have 
proved superior in a conflict, as “ the sw r ord of 
the Spirit” transcends every other weapon. 

Great was the contrast between the parties 
now engaged in a determined struggle. One 
was formed of the supporters of the old system, 
who had neglected the cultivation of letters; 
the other, of those vrho were diligent in study, 
and demoted to the examination of the sacred 
Scriptures. When, therefore, these champions 
of reform encountered the doctors of Rome, it 
was with singular advantage. 

The impulse given by the Reformation to 
popular literature in Germany was immense. 
The number of books, averaging between twenty 
and thirty, augmented with astonishing rapidity 
after the publication of Luther’s theses. The 
increase in five years was from seventy-one 
distinct works in a year to no less than four 
hundred and ninety-eight. Almost all these 
were published at Wittemberg, and most fre¬ 
quently Luther was their author. The year 1522 
witnessed the appearance of one hundred and 
thirty writings of the Reformers, and the fol¬ 
lowing year one hundred and eighty-three, 
w'hile in the same year only twenty Romanist pub¬ 
lications were issued. How powerful an auxiliary 
the press became is, therefore, at once apparent. 


170 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

Nor were other means wanting. Monks, 
taking leave of their cloisters, and too ignorant 
to preach the gospel, visited provinces and 
hamlets, and entered solitary dwellings, to offer 
the works of Luther and his associates for sale. 
Hawkers soon covered the face of Germany. 
Printers and bookbinders preferred the works 
of the Reformers to those of their antagonists, 
as incomparably superior in substance and 
style. To offer in a fair a book on the Papacy, 
was to be derided by merchants as well as men 
of letters. In vain the emperor and the princes 
had issued decrees against the writings of the 
Reformers; the proscribed books were hidden, 
so that they might be safe in inquisitorial visits, 
and were read in secret with increased ardor. 
Nor were these things limited to Germany. 
Luther’s writings were translated and widely 
diffused in England, France, Spain, and Italy. 

Meanwhile, Luther and his followers went 
forth proclaiming “ the glorious gospel of the 
blessed God.” In one town, as there was no 
church capable of containing the multitude, 
Luther mounted the balcony of the town hall, 
and preached to twenty-five thousand persons, 
assembled before it in the open place. In other 
towns he was surrounded by large, eager, and 
interested crowds. 



INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. l7l 

Five of his disciples went to Freyberg, where 
resided in the castle Duke Henry, brother to 
Duke George. In the previous year, his wife, a 
princess of Mecklenberg, had given him a son, 
whom he had named Maurice. As Luther’s 
disciples preached, the duchess, who recoiled 
with horror from heresy, listened to their 
sermons, astonished to find that the still small 
voice of mercy had excited in her bosom 
so much apprehension. Gradually the eyes of 
her understanding were enlightened, and she 
received the truth. Scarcely had Duke George 
learned that it was proclaimed at Freyberg, 
when he requested his brother to prevent its 
continuance. Duke Henry severely and rudely 
reprimanded his wife, but, committing herself 
to God, she displayed the virtues of “a meek 
and quiet spirit,” and these won, by degrees, 
on her husband’s heart. Over the cradle of 
their child they could now affectionately unite 
in supplication, and from it God was pleased to 
bring forth one who proved a defender of the 
Reformation. 

At Frankfort on the Maine, one of the chief 
free cities of the empire, Ibach boldly pro¬ 
claimed salvation by Jesus Christ. He was, in 
consequence, denounced to the archbishop, de¬ 
posed by the clergy, and finally expelled. 


172 INCIDENTS OF TIIE RE FORMATION. 

But when it appeared that Rome was triumph¬ 
ant, many nobles declared in favor of the 
gospel. Addressing the clergy, they said, 
“Embrace the evangelical doctrines; recall 
Ibach, or we will withdraw your tithes!” The 
people, inclined to reform, were encouraged by 
the conduct of the nobles. One day the priest, 
Peter Mayer, most opposed to the Reformation, 
was about to preach ; a great tumult arose. 
Mayer, greatly terrified, hurried out of the 
church. This occurrence decided the council; 
they issued an order commanding all the clergy 
to preach God’s word purely, or to quit the city. 

It was not to be expected that the truth 
would have an uninterrupted progress; its 
advancement might rather be expected to rouse 
the malice of its enemies. On Clement VII. 
succeeding to the popedom, it was evident that 
he thought only of maintaining its privileges, 
and rendering its forces subservient to the 
aggrandizement of its power. He now sent to 
Nuremberg the Cardinal Campeggi, one of the 
ablest men of his court, and who knew almost 
all the princes of Germany. On entering 
Augsburg, he wished, as usual, to give his 
blessing to the people, but they only laughed 
at him, and he entered Nuremberg without 
any of the ordinary attendants of his state. 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 173 

At the diet of January, 1524 , he reminded 
those assembled of the edict of Worms, and 
called on them to put down the Reformation by 
force. The only reply was, the addition of a 
clause that virtually annulled the edict: “ It 
must be conformed to as much as possible” It 
was also agreed, that a secular assembly should 
be convened in November, to settle all religious 
questions, and that the theologians of the several 
States should draw up a list of the questions 
which should then be determined. Great was 
the rage of the pope at the tidings; it was re¬ 
solved to decide in matters of religion against 
his very authority. 

Clement now wrote to the emperor: If I am 
the last to make head against the tempest, it is 
not that I am the only one threatened, but that 
the helm is in my hands. The rights of the 
empire are still more assailed than the dignity 
of the court of Rome.” He also labored to 
make himself allies in Germany, and soon suc¬ 
ceeded in gaining over one of the most powerful 
houses in the country, that of the duke of 
Bavaria. Other accessions to his cause now 
took place. 

A meeting of those who were thus confeder¬ 
ated was soon convened at Ratisbon; it was 
opened by the legate, who forcibly depicted the 


174 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

dangers which reform entailed on the princes 
and the clergy. “ Let us,” he said, “ extirpate 
heresy, and save the Church.” The princes 
and bishops now assembled resolved to employ 
every means in their power for this end; and, 
unable to hide from themselves the immoralities 
of the priests, forbade certain things to which 
they had been accustomed. 

We sometimes observe persons imitating that 
which they avowedly oppose. Emser had set 
up a translation of the Bible in opposition to 
Luther’s; Eck had published “Common Places,” 
in opposition to Melancthon; and now some 
efforts were made for a partial reform. But 
these were only subtil expedients—a removal 
of a branch here and there to save the tree— 
concessions to prevailing feeling, that all besides 
might be perpetuated. 

The controversy, which had hitherto been re¬ 
ligious, now assumed a political character. The 
Roman party formed at Ratisbon had broken up 
the unity of Germany. Various parties were 
brought into violent collision. Charles issued 
his declaration, “ That the decree of Worms 
should be promptly enforced against the new 
Mohammed;” and persecution immediately be¬ 
gan in the Austrian States. 

Tauber, a citizen of Vienna, had written 


INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 175 

against some of the Romish errors, and had 
disseminated Luther’s works. He was thrown 
into prison ; but it was thought he would retract, 
and great preparations were made to render his 
so doing an imposing spectacle. But when the 
formula of recantation was placed in his hand, 
he exclaimed, “ I am not convinced, and I appeal 
to the holy Roman empire !” Amazement seized 
the priests, the people, and the choir, that in 
loud strains was to celebrate the repentance of 
the heretic. But Tauber called for death, rather 
than renounce the Gospel. His head was struck 
off, and his body consigned to the flames. 

The most horrid cruelties were perpetrated in 
other States of the Catholic league. Especially 
did persecution rage in the territories of the 
dukes of Bavaria. 

The persecutions thus arising from the league 
of Ratisbon, excited a painful reaction among 
the people of Germany. Scarcely had the 
assembly separated, when the deputies of the 
cities whose bishops had taken part in that alliance 
met, and resolved that their preachers should 
proclaim the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, in 
accordance with the language of the apostles. 

Several princes were now won over to the 
cause of the Reformation. Philip, landgrave of 
Hesse, embraced the Gospel, exclaiming, “ Ra- 


1 *76 INCIDENTS OF THE REFORMATION. 

ther would I surrender my body and life, my 
dominions and subjects, than the word of God.” 
A monk wrote him a letter full of reproaches, 
and conjured him to remain faithful to Rome. 
Philip replied, “ I will remain faithful to the 
ancient doctrine, but as it is contained in Scrip¬ 
ture.” He then proceeded to prove, with great 
force, that man is justified only by faith. The 
monk was not merely silenced, but amazed. 
He called Philip “ Melancthon’s disciple.” 

Other princes pursued a similar course. The 
elector palatine refused to lend himself to any 
persecution; the duke of Luneberg, nephew to 
the elector of Saxony, began to reform his 
States; and the king of Denmark issued his 
proclamation, that in Schleswig and Holstein 
every one should be free to serve God as his 
conscience commanded him. 

But we must pause in this narrative. We 
have seen enough, however, to form a just con¬ 
ception of the character and influence of Popery, 
to show that the word of the Lord is “ more 
precious than gold, yea, than much fine gold,” 
and to stimulate to its diffusion among all the 
children of men. 


THE END. 


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